Academic stress and employment anxiety among graduating students: intolerance of uncertainty and future-oriented repetitive negative thinking as sequential cognitive-affective pathways

Abstract

Graduating students often face the dual challenge of completing academic requirements and entering an uncertain labor market, yet limited research has examined the cognitive-affective factors involved in the association between academic stress and later employment anxiety. This study examined whether the association between academic stress and later employment anxiety included indirect associations through intolerance of uncertainty and future-oriented repetitive negative thinking in a theoretically specified sequential model. A three-wave timelagged survey was conducted among 1,045 graduating students in China. Academic stress, baseline employment anxiety, and covariates were measured at Time 1; intolerance of uncertainty and future-oriented repetitive negative thinking were measured at Time 2; and employment anxiety was measured at Time 3. Structural equation modeling indicated that Time 1 academic stress was positively associated with Time 3 employment anxiety after adjustment for baseline employment anxiety and demographic covariates. Time 1 academic stress was also positively associated with both Time 2 cognitive variables. Time 2 intolerance of uncertainty was positively associated with Time 3 employment anxiety and Time 2 future-oriented repetitive negative thinking, while Time 2 future-oriented repetitive negative thinking was positively associated with Time 3 employment anxiety. Bootstrap analyses identified significant indirect associations through intolerance of uncertainty, through future-oriented repetitive negative thinking, and through the theoretically specified sequential pathway involving both variables. Because the two intermediate variables were measured at the same wave, their ordering was theoretically specified rather than temporally established. The estimated total indirect association accounted for more than half of the total association between academic stress and later employment anxiety. These findings suggest that the association between academic stress and later employment anxiety may involve both uncertainty-related cognitive vulnerability and persistent future-oriented negative thinking. These factors may be relevant considerations for university mental health and career-support services.