Academic Involution and Mental Internal Friction of College Students: The Mediating Role of Academic Stress and the Moderating Role of Rumination

With the continuous development of society and the increasing intensity of competition, academic stress and mental internal friction among college students have become increasingly prominent. This study aimed to explore the relationships and underlying mechanisms among academic involution, mental internal friction, academic stress, and rumination in a sample of 626 Chinese undergraduate students. The results indicate that (1) academic involution positively predicts mental internal friction; (2) academic stress plays a full mediating role in the relationship between academic involution and mental internal friction; and (3) rumination moderates the pathway through which academic involution affects mental internal friction via academic stress. The research results further reveal the mechanism of the impact of academic involution on mental exhaustion among college students, providing practical inspiration for university educators to formulate effective intervention measures.