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Category: Project

Description: The performance and well-being of university students is influenced by many factors, including self-control and affect regulation, but little is known about how these factors influence one another. To better understand how these factors interact to impact student well-being, we analyzed data from a multi-site research project that assessed self-control, affect regulation, and anxiety in a longitudinal cohort design (N = 1360) using Structural Equation Modeling. We specifically tested hypotheses that self-control, assessed upon entering school, would predict anxiety outcomes from students’ third year, and affect regulation styles (adaptive or maladaptive) would mediate this relationship. We found that greater self-control did predict lower third-year anxiety, even after accounting for anxiety levels upon entering school. This relationship was partially mediated by maladaptive affect regulation; students with greater self-control endorsed less use of maladaptive coping strategies (e.g., denial, self-blame), which predicted less subsequent anxiety. These findings highlight trait self-control as an important predictor of affective well-being, and they identify maladaptive affect regulation as a target for interventions to promote student well-being and success.