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Perceived social support and procrastination in college students: A sequential mediation model of self-compassion and negative emotions

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Abstract

Perceived social support was found to play an important role in reducing procrastination. However, little is known about the psychological mechanisms underlying this relation. Based on the integrated model of social support, the current study investigated the effect of the perceived social support on procrastination, and further explored the mediating role of self-compassion and negative emotions in this relation in a sample of 874 Chinese college students. Results showed: (a) perceived social support negatively predicted procrastination; (b) both self-compassion and negative emotions partially mediated the association between perceived social support and procrastination separately; (c) self-compassion and negative emotions sequentially mediated the relation between perceived social support and procrastination. This study provides new insights for the mechanisms between perceived social support and procrastination, which has important practical implications for the interventions of college students’ procrastination.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study is supported by National Social Science Foundation of China (Major Program) (19ZDA021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, No. 59 Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100872, China

    Xiaofan Yang, Jingru Zhu & Ping Hu

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  1. Xiaofan Yang
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Contributions

Xiaofan Yang and Jingru Zhu designed the study; Xiaofan Yang collected and analyzed the data; Jingru Zhu and Xiaofan Yang wrote the manuscript; Ping Hu revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ping Hu.

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Author Xiaofan Yang, Author Jingru Zhu and Author Ping Hu declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Yang, X., Zhu, J. & Hu, P. Perceived social support and procrastination in college students: A sequential mediation model of self-compassion and negative emotions. Curr Psychol 42, 5521–5529 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01920-3

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