AI Insight
This study of 705 Chinese social science doctoral students examined how academic stress affects subjective academic achievement through two parallel pathways: one positive pathway through improved emotion regulation and one negative pathway through cognitive decline. The research found that mind wandering acts as a moderator that amplifies both pathways, strengthening both the beneficial effects of stress-induced emotion regulation and the detrimental effects of stress-induced cognitive decline. This reveals a "double-edged sword effect" where academic stress can simultaneously enhance and hinder academic outcomes depending on individual psychological factors.
Why it matters
The findings provide evidence for designing targeted stress management interventions in higher education, particularly for doctoral students who face sustained academic pressure. Understanding that stress can have both positive and negative effects simultaneously allows universities to develop differentiated support programs that maximize adaptive responses while minimizing cognitive impairment.
This study, based on a sample of 705 social science doctoral students in China, constructs a dual-mediation model of “Academic Stress → Emotion Regulation/Cognitive Decline → Subjective Academic Achievement” and introduces Mind Wandering as a moderating variable to examine the two correlational pathways between Academic Stress and Subjective Academic Achievement. The findings reveal that: (1) Academic Stress is positively correlated with Emotion Regulation (B = 0.322, p < 0.001), and Emotion Regulation is positively correlated with Subjective Academic Achievement (B = 0.137, p < 0.001). Concurrently, in the negative pathway, Academic Stress is positively correlated with Cognitive Decline (B = 0.335, p < 0.001), and Cognitive Decline is negatively correlated with Subjective Academic Achievement (B = −0.126, p < 0.001). (2) Mind Wandering significantly moderates both pathways: under conditions of high Mind Wandering, the positive correlation between Academic Stress and Emotion Regulation is stronger, and the positive correlation between Academic Stress and Cognitive Decline is also stronger. This study reveals the potential “double-edged sword effect” of Academic Stress through the parallel mediating roles of Emotion Regulation and Cognitive Decline, and validates the double-edged moderating mechanism of Mind Wandering on the stress-transformation pathways. The findings provide theoretical foundations and practical guidance for universities to design differentiated stress intervention programs.