"Have to do" or "willing to do": Examining the relationship between self-control and academic emotions using experience sampling method

Zhong-Jian Liu; Jun Hu; Yuan Tian; Yu-Ting Xi

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20598

"Have to do" or "willing to do": Examining the relationship between self-control and academic emotions using experience sampling method

Heliyon. 2023 Oct 1;9(10):e20598. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20598. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Authors

Zhong-Jian Liu^{1

2}, Jun Hu^{1

3}, Yuan Tian^{1

2}, Yu-Ting Xi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430079, China.
² School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China.
³ School of Foreign Language, Hubei University of Technology Engineering and Technology College, China.
⁴ China University of Petroleum-Beijing at Karamay, China.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the antecedents of academic emotions among university students through real-time and multilevel analyses. We explored the link between state self-control and academic emotions, the influence of self-determination on the relationship between them, and the moderating role of trait self-control. The data was collected over seven consecutive days during which university students (N = 155) completed smartphone questionnaires. Data was organized into hierarchical two-level structures, where situations (Level 1) nested within individuals (Level 2). The results showed that positive emotions were negatively predicted by state self-control while negative emotions were positively predicted by state self-control. Moreover, state self-control under low self-determination was a significant negative predictor of positive emotions, whereas high self-determination had no predictive effect on positive emotions. The relationship between self-determination and negative emotions was further moderated by trait self-control. The limitations of this study and future research directions are also discussed.

Keywords: Academic emotion; Experience sampling method; Self-determination; Trait self-control; state self-control.