Keywords
Socioeconomic Status
Anxious Symptoms
First-year college students
Abstract
The transition from high school to university is fraught with difficulties and challenges. In China specifically, substantial differences exist between high school and college education styles, along with significant urban-rural economic disparities, which may lead to maladaptation for first-year undergraduates. Given the increasing concerns about college students' mental health, this study investigated the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and anxiety symptoms. The study also analyzed time management ability as a mediator. The research included 1055 first-year students (43.70% females, mean age =18.19 ± 0.67) who completed the MacArthur scale of subjective social status, the Adolescence Time Management Disposition Scale (ATMD) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD) online. Results from mediation analysis showed that SES was significantly negatively associated with anxiety symptoms. Additionally, time management ability - specifically time control and time efficacy - completely mediated this relationship. These findings indicated that effective time management skills can reduce the negative effects of low SES on anxiety. The results demonstrate the significance of time management during the transitional phase to prevent anxiety. The findings suggest that educators and counselors should focus additional attention on students from low SES backgrounds and provide targeted tutorials to enhance students' time management skills, which may relieve their anxiety to a certain extent.
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