Is negative coping necessarily "bad"? State anxiety and college student adjustment: a Moderated Moderation Model

Introduction: The transition to university life presents significant developmental challenges, and state anxiety is increasingly recognized as a key factor undermining college student adjustment. However, the psychological mechanisms through which anxiety relates to adjustment remain insufficiently understood. Drawing upon evolutionary, transactional, and resource-based perspectives, this study investigates how coping styles moderate the anxiety-adjustment relationship and whether perceived social support further conditions these moderating effects. Methods: 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. Results: State anxiety was negatively associated with college adjustment. Both positive coping and negative coping significantly moderated this relationship. Perceived social support further moderated the moderating effect of coping styles. For negative coping, the buffering effect of perceived social support was particularly pronounced: among students with high negative coping, those with high perceived social support showed the weakest negative association between anxiety and adjustment. For positive coping, the combination of high positive coping and low perceived social support yielded the most protective effect, with the weakest negative association between state anxiety and college student adjustment observed in this group. These findings provide empirical evidence for the development of targeted psychological intervention programs for college students with different coping styles. Conclusion: These findings advance understanding of anxiety-adjustment dynamics by demonstrating that coping effectiveness is context-dependent and jointly shaped by internal regulatory resources and external social resources. The results challenge simplistic coping categorizations and support a resource-regulation framework wherein adaptation emerges from dynamic interactions among emotional states, individual coping patterns, and social contexts.