Open Access

ARTICLE

Effects of College Students’ Perceived Stress on Anxiety in the Time of COVID-19: The Chain Mediation Role of Psychological Resilience and Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy

Ting Li^1,3,*, Qiang Xie^2,3

1 Center for Evaluation and Faculty Development, Hunan First Normal University, Changsha, 410205, China
2 Teaching Affairs Office, Hunan First Normal University, Changsha, 410205, China
3 Graduate School of Sehan University, Mokpo, 58613, South Korea

* Corresponding Author: Ting Li. Email:

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2022, 24(2), 263-276. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2022.019177

Received 07 September 2021; Accepted 09 November 2021; Issue published 18 January 2022

Abstract

COVID-19 has changed the way of learning and life of college students. The purpose is to explore the relationship between perceived stress and anxiety, and the mediating effect of resilience and regulatory emotional self-efficacy in college students during COVID-19. 309 students from three colleges were selected as research participants (average age 19.79 ± 1.11 years). SPSS was used to measure the correlation between variables. Amos was used to test the path coefficient and mediating effect of the hypothetical model. The results show that: Firstly, perceived stress has a significantly and positively predictive effect on anxiety. Secondly, psychological resilience and regulatory emotional self-efficacy independently played a significant and partially mediating effect between perceived stress and anxiety. Among them, perceived stress had a negative predictive effect on psychological resilience and regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Psychological resilience and regulatory emotional self-efficacy had a negative predictive effect on anxiety. Thirdly, psychological resilience and regulatory emotional self-efficacy play a chain mediation role between psychological stress and anxiety. Regulatory emotional self-efficacy cannot only directly predict the level of anxiety, but also indirectly predict the level of anxiety by regulating psychological resilience. This study reveals the relationship between college students’ perceived stress and anxiety, and the mediating effect of psychological resilience and regulatory emotional self-efficacy in the new time of COVID-19. The chain mediation role of psychological resilience and regulatory emotional self-efficacy reminds college mental health educators that improving students’ regulatory emotional self-efficacy is an important way to promote students’ mental health.

---

Keywords

---