From fear to bravery: Online social support, self-appraisal strategies, personal development competitiveness attitude, and academic procrastination in online learning

In socially isolated online learning environments, students often face increased academic procrastination and struggle. However, research on the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon and support for online learners is lacking. This study integrates protection motivation theory and self-determination theory to examine the relationships between online social support, self-appraisal strategies (fear of failure and expectancy-value beliefs), personal development competitiveness attitude, and academic procrastination in online learning. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze a sample of 969 Chinese university students (age range 16 to 24, male = 614, female = 352, non-binary = 3). Results demonstrated that fear of failure and expectancy-value beliefs serially mediate the association between online social support and academic procrastination. Additionally, the personal development competitiveness attitude moderates the relationship between online social support and academic procrastination through fear of failure, expectancy-value beliefs, and their serial mediation. Students with low online social support may experience fear of academic challenges, perceive these challenges as more threatening, underestimate their coping abilities, and engage in procrastination. However, strong personal development competitiveness can motivate them to adopt adaptive strategies to overcome fear. This underscores the specific dynamics of academic procrastination in socially isolated online learning settings and emphasizes the relevance of both situational factors and motivation in developing effective interventions.