Self-Handicapping in Chinese Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Academic Anxiety, Procrastination and Hardiness

Abstract

Background: In the face of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak, Chinese medical students worried about their future studies which might make them more susceptible to academic anxiety. Previous studies have shown that academic anxiety is an important risk factor for self-handicapping, but there are few studies to explore the relationship between the two which may be mediated or moderated by other variables. Therefore, this study investigated how Chinese medical students' academic anxiety is correlated to their self-handicapping in time of COVID-19 epidemic, and explored the moderating and mediating effects of hardiness and procrastination.Methods: In this study, 320 Chinese medical students' psychological traits were measured with Academic Anxiety Questionnaire, Self-Handicapping Scale, General Procrastination Scale and Hardiness Scale to explore the potential associations between these variables.Results: The most obvious finding to emerge from this study was that self- handicapping had a positive correlation with academic anxiety and procrastination, but had a negative correlation with hardiness; hardiness had a negative association with academic anxiety and procrastination; and academic anxiety and procrastination were positively correlated. In addition, the relationship between academic anxiety and self-handicapping of Chinese medical students was not only partially mediated by procrastination, but also moderated by hardiness. Furthermore, medical students who had lower hardiness had stronger direct effect, while the indirect effect was strong at high and low conditions of hardiness.Conclusion: In time of the COVID-19 epidemic, the academic anxiety and self-handicapping of medical students are influenced by procrastination and hardiness to a great extent. Thus, in addition to suggesting that more attention should be paid to the academic anxiety and procrastination of medical students, in the future, more attention should be paid to cultivating the hardiness of medical students and exerting its interventional role in self-handicapping.

The mediating role of general academic emotions in burnout and procrastination among Chinese medical undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

“…Pekrun pointed out that academic emotions encompass all emotional experiences that a person may experience during the life course ( 44 ). Medical undergraduates are already under high academic and social pressure, which can cause procrastination ( 32 ). Major events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, might trigger learning anxiety, boredom in association with homework, loss of interest in learning or no expectation of success in examinations, or even professional identity and professionalism among medical undergraduates.…”

“…Regarding medical professionals and undergraduates, similar to the burnout phenomenon mentioned above, procrastination, i.e., the needless delay of things that one intends to do, is also a major risk factor for low well-being ( 31 ). Evidence suggests that procrastination is positively correlated with academic anxiety ( 32 ), distress ( 33 ) and low motivation in students ( 34 ), resulting in more agitation before a test or poor academic performance across the entire semester. Besides the psychological aspects, a correlation between procrastination and the academic environment has also been demonstrated among medical students ( 35 – 37 ).…”

Relationship between self-handicapping and academic buoyancy among final year students in secondary schools

“…In agreement, [40] showed that self-handicapped students were more likely to be maladaptive perfectionists than non-self-handicapped students. [41] argues that the relationship between academic anxiety and self-handicapping of students was moderated by hardiness. Moreover, [5] showed that academic buoyancy was associated with higher levels of academic achievement as well as controlled and autonomous motivational orientations.…”

Hubungan self regulated learning dan dukungan orangtua terhadap perilaku prokrastinasi akademik

“…Dukungan sosial merupakan bagian dari jaringan komunikasi timbal balik dari orang tua, kekasih, kerabat, teman, lingkungan sosial dan masyarakat. Saat seseorang didukung oleh lingkungan sosialnya maka segalanya akan terasa lebih mudah dan individu itu merasa diperhatikan dan dipedulikan sehingga menimbulkan rasa percaya diri (Jia, 2021). Fauziah, (2016) menyatakan bahwa dukungan sosial memang sangat mempengaruhi prokrastinasi akademik, apabila dukungan sosialnya tinggi maka tingkat prokrastinasi akademik cenderung akan rendah, begitu pula sebaliknya apabila dukungan sosial rendah maka tingkat prokrastinasi akademik cenderung akan tinggi.…”