Academic Stress and Social Support Relate to Entrepreneurial Intention among Chinese Private University Students: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65310/1cty2411Keywords:
academic stress, social support, psychological capital, entrepreneurial intention, private university studentsAbstract
This cross-sectional study examined associations among academic stress, perceived social support, psychological capital, and entrepreneurial intention among students at a private higher vocational college in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China. Of 270 questionnaires distributed, 255 usable questionnaires were retained after 15 were excluded for incomplete responses or predefined response-quality concerns (usable proportion of distributed questionnaires = 94.4%). The measures were administered in Chinese and assessed academic stress, social support, psychological capital, and entrepreneurial intention. Analyses included descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Pearson correlations, hierarchical regression, and mediation tests using 2,500 bootstrap resamples. Academic stress was negatively associated with psychological capital (B = -0.304, SE = 0.067, p < .001) and entrepreneurial intention (total-effect model: B = -0.395, SE = 0.076, p < .001). Social support was positively associated with psychological capital (B = 0.327, SE = 0.049, p < .001) and entrepreneurial intention (B = 0.386, SE = 0.056, p < .001). The indirect association through psychological capital was negative for academic stress (effect = -0.122, 95% bootstrap CI [-0.191, -0.063]) and positive for social support (effect = 0.132, 95% bootstrap CI [0.079, 0.196]). Because the data are cross-sectional, these indirect effects do not establish causal processes. The findings identify psychological capital as a possible link between students’ academic and social experiences and entrepreneurial intention. Intervention studies are needed to test whether changes in academic pressure, support, or psychological capital affect entrepreneurial readiness.
Downloads
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
Autio, E., Keeley, R. H., Klofsten, M., Parker, G. G. C., & Hay, M. (2001). Entrepreneurial intent among students in Scandinavia and in the USA. Enterprise and Innovation Management Studies, 2(2), 145–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/14632440110094632
Bae, T. J., Qian, S., Miao, C., & Fiet, J. O. (2014). The relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions: A meta-analytic review. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38(2), 217–254. https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12095
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall.
Bedewy, D., & Gabriel, A. (2015). Examining perceptions of academic stress and its sources among university students: The Perception of Academic Stress Scale. Health Psychology Open, 2(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055102915596714
Chen, H., & Huang, J.-H. (2023). The relationship between students’ perception of university entrepreneurial support and entrepreneurial intentions: The mediating role of psychological capital. International Journal of Higher Education, 12(6), 78–88. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v12n6p78
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310–357. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.310
Fayolle, A., & Gailly, B. (2015). The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial attitudes and intention: Hysteresis and persistence. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 75–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12065
Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.3.513
Jiang, Q. J. (1999). Perceived social support scale (PSSS). In X. D. Wang, X. L. Wang, & H. Ma (Eds.), Handbook of mental health assessment scales (Rev. ed., pp. 131–133). Chinese Mental Health Journal Press.
Krueger, N. F., Reilly, M. D., & Carsrud, A. L. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15(5–6), 411–432. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0883-9026(98)00033-0
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.
Liñán, F., & Chen, Y.-W. (2009). Development and cross-cultural application of a specific instrument to measure entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(3), 593–617. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2009.00318.x
Luthans, F., Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O., & Li, W. (2005). The psychological capital of Chinese workers: Exploring the relationship with performance. Management and Organization Review, 1(2), 249–271. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2005.00011.x
Luthans, F., Youssef, C. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2007). Psychological capital: Developing the human competitive edge. Oxford University Press.
Luthans, F., Avolio, B. J., Avey, J. B., & Norman, S. M. (2007). Positive psychological capital: Measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel Psychology, 60(3), 541–572. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x
Mahfud, T., Triyono, M. B., Sudira, P., & Mulyani, Y. (2020). The influence of social capital and entrepreneurial attitude orientation on entrepreneurial intentions: The mediating role of psychological capital. European Research on Management and Business Economics, 26(1), 33–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2019.12.005
Misra, R., & McKean, M. (2000). College students’ academic stress and its relation to their anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction. American Journal of Health Studies, 16(1), 41–51.
Nabi, G., Liñán, F., Fayolle, A., Krueger, N., & Walmsley, A. (2017). The impact of entrepreneurship education in higher education: A systematic review and research agenda. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 16(2), 277–299. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2015.0026
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.3.879
Schlaegel, C., & Koenig, M. (2014). Determinants of entrepreneurial intent: A meta-analytic test and integration of competing models. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38(2), 291–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12087
Schumpeter, J. A. (1934). The theory of economic development: An inquiry into profits, capital, credit, interest, and the business cycle (R. Opie, Trans.). Harvard University Press.
Schwarzer, R. (1992). Self-efficacy in the adoption and maintenance of health behaviors: Theoretical approaches and a new model. In R. Schwarzer (Ed.), Self-efficacy: Thought control of action (pp. 217–243). Hemisphere.
Shapero, A., & Sokol, L. (1982). The social dimensions of entrepreneurship. In C. A. Kent, D. L. Sexton, & K. H. Vesper (Eds.), Encyclopedia of entrepreneurship (pp. 72–90). Prentice-Hall.
Tian, L., & Deng, Q. (2007). Development of the learning stress inventory for college students. Chinese Journal of Behavioral Medicine and Brain Science, 16(8), 753–755. https://doi.org/10.3760/cma.j.issn.1005-8559.2007.08.034
Turker, D., & Selcuk, S. S. (2009). Which factors affect entrepreneurial intention of university students? Journal of European Industrial Training, 33(2), 142–159. https://doi.org/10.1108/0309059091093904
Wu, Y., & Lin, R. (2026). Evolving landscapes of higher entrepreneurship education: A comparative analysis of policy, curriculum, and support ecologies in China and the United States. Journal of Educational Theory and Technology, 1(1), 11–22.
Zhang, K., Zhang, S., & Dong, Y. (2010). Positive psychological capital: Measurement and relationship with mental health. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 8(1), 58–64. [In Chinese]
Zhao, H., Seibert, S. E., & Hills, G. E. (2005). The mediating role of self-efficacy in the development of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(6), 1265–1272. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.6.1265
Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G., & Farley, G. K. (1988). The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52(1), 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa52012
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Yundong Wu (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
