Character strengths, emotional distress, and academic procrastination in Psychology students
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Abstract
Character strengths are personality traits that have been linked to well-being, mental health, and effective college performance. The aim of this research was to assess the impact of character strengths on emotional distress and academic procrastination. Participants were 255 Psychology majors (71.37 % female) with an average age of 21 years. The sampling method was non-probabilistic, and the following instruments were used: Growing Strong Scale (character strengths), Depression and Anxiety Scales, and Procrastination Assessment Scale for Students. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, and binary logistic regression were conducted. The findings indicate statistically significant differences in character strengths and levels of procrastination and emotional distress between genders. The regressions on the predictive capacity of character strengths in relation to emotional distress reveal that caution, gratitude, and love significantly forecast low levels: creativity, perspective, perseverance, gratitude, and humor were found to be significant predictors for anxiety, while curiosity, kindness, social intelligence, gratitude, and humor were reported for depression. However, none of the strengths showed significant predictive ability for stress. Regarding academic procrastination, the findings indicate that leadership and self-regulation are significant factors. Character strengths can, therefore, be considered to function as protective factors against academic procrastination and emotional distress symptoms, highlighting the importance of promoting them in a university setting.
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