Rumination, psychological capital and academic procrastination among nursing students: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Academic procrastination is common among college students, which affects their learning status and even their physical and mental health. Rumination, psychological capital, and academic procrastination are closely related, but for nursing students, there are few studies reporting on their levels and relationships. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of rumination, psychological capital, and academic procrastination among nursing students, and examine the mediating role of psychological capital in rumination and academic procrastination. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: The study sampled three medical colleges in Sichuan Province, China. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sampling method was used to select 556 nursing students from April to June 2023. METHODS: 556 nursing students were asked to complete questionnaires regarding social-demographic information, rumination, psychological capital, and academic procrastination. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and structural equation model were used in this study. RESULTS: The scores of rumination, psychological capital, and academic procrastination among nursing students were 46.08 ± 13.61, 108.28 ± 19.50 and 55.32 ± 12.30, respectively. Additionally, structural equation modeling showed that psychological capital mediated the relationship between rumination and academic procrastination with the partial mediating effect of 0.425. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that nursing students exhibit moderate levels of rumination, psychological capital and academic procrastination. Moreover, rumination can not only directly affect academic procrastination, but also indirectly through psychological capital. Nursing educators should strengthen their attention to the mental health and learning status of nursing students, take measures to help them adapt to campus life, alleviate rumination, enrich psychological capital, and reduce the risk of academic procrastination.