Is negative coping necessarily "bad"? State anxiety and college student adjustment: a three-way interaction model

The transition to university life presents significant developmental challenges, and state anxiety has been widely recognized as a key factor undermining college student adjustment. However, the psychological mechanisms through which anxiety relates to adjustment remain insufficiently understood. From a resource-regulation perspective, this study investigates how positive and negative coping moderate the anxiety-adjustment relationship. We also examine whether perceived social support further conditions these moderating effects.

A total of 1105 college students were surveyed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, Perceived Social Support Scale, and Chinese College Student Adjustment Scale.

State anxiety was negatively associated with college adjustment. Both positive coping and negative coping significantly moderated this relationship, and these moderating effects were further conditioned by perceived social support. Specifically, negative coping weakened the negative association between anxiety and adjustment primarily among students with high levels of perceived social support. For positive coping, the combination of high positive coping and low perceived social support was associated with the weakest negative association between anxiety and adjustment.

These findings indicate that coping strategies and perceived social support jointly shape the association between anxiety and adjustment. Notably, individuals with high positive coping maintain relatively good adjustment even under low social support, suggesting greater reliance on internal regulatory resources. In contrast, negative coping is not inherently beneficial but may serve a context-dependent regulatory function under supportive conditions. Overall, this study provides a more nuanced understanding of college student adjustment and informs targeted interventions.