The Relationship Between Temporal Metacognition and Academic Emotions Among College Students: The Serial Mediating Effects of Sense of Purpose and Academic Resilience
Author: Chia-Hsien Lu (Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University), Huey-Jiuan Chen (Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University)
Vol.&No.：Vol. 70, No. 1
Date：March 2025
Pages：255-283
DOI：https://doi.org/10.6209/JORIES.202503_70(1).0008
Abstract：
In the 21st century, college students are influenced by numerous mental and social issues related to “time”, which often lead to various maladaptive developmental conditions. However, previous research has rarely emphasized the impact of time perspectives (TP) on young adults. Therefore, we adopted the temporal metacognition to explore the key processes underlying the development of academic emotions among college students in Taiwan, and incorporating the roles of sense of purpose and academic resilience as significant factors. We aimed to provide more robust evidence to support colleges’ interventions or guidance and some advices for future research in higher education.
Academic emotions are the feelings students experience in response to academic activities, and they are crucial factors influencing students’ academic achievement, learning motivation and well-being. According to the control-value theory, the generation of academic emotions is related to the sense of control associated with future expectations, present goals, and past experiences of success or failure. In other words, academic emotions are influenced by individuals’ temporal metacognition, which pertain to their awareness and monitoring of their time perspectives. Temporal metacognition can have various positive impacts on individuals; those who effectively manage their time perspectives can adapt them to situational demands and experience healthy emotions such as hope and joy. Thus, we hypothesized that college students with better temporal metacognition possess the ability to generate positive academic emotions while reducing the likelihood of experiencing negative academic emotions. On the other side, sense of purpose not only emphasizes future goals but also connects with the past and being present, highlighting its important relationship with temporal metacognition. When facing difficulties in achieving goals, sense of purpose can help students to find the courage to confront these challenges, further indicating that sense of purpose is closely related to academic resilience. Academic resilience refers to students’ abilities to overcome setbacks or learning adversities that threaten their educational development. Academic resilience can support students in maintaining positive thinking during challenging situations, leading them to rebound and ultimately make them have positive emotions. Therefore, we posited that college students with better temporal metacognition experience more positive academic emotions throughout their learning process and are less likely to be dominated by negative emotions. Guided by a sense of purpose and protected by academic resilience, these students are expected to frequently experience positive academic emotions in their college life. We used a mediation model to test the relationships among these variables, with temporal metacognition as the independent variable, positive and negative academic emotions as the dependent variables, and sense of purpose and academic resilience as serial mediators. The main purposes of the research were to understand the relationships among these variables, and find out the mediation effects of sense of purpose and academic resilience in the relationships between temporal metacognition and academic resilience among college students.
Therefore, five scales were developed, including the Temporal Metacognition Scale, the Positive Academic Emotions Scale, the Negative Academic Emotions Scale, the Sense of Purpose Scale, and the Academic Resilience Scale. A total of 331 college students in Taiwan were invited to complete these scales. All scales were designed based on recommendations from previous research and adapted to the context and terminology relevant to Taiwanese college students. The scales underwent rigorous item analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to ensure the measurement quality. After the development of the scales, descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation analysis were conducted by SPSS 23.0 software, and sequential mediation effects were tested by Mplus 8.8 software.
The results of the Pearson’s correlation analysis indicated that temporal metacognition, positive academic emotions, negative academic emotions, sense of purpose, and academic resilience were significantly correlated with each other. Temporal metacognition was positively correlated with positive academic emotions, negatively correlated with negative academic emotions, positively correlated with sense of purpose, and positively correlated with academic resilience. Sense of purpose was positively correlated with positive academic emotions, negatively correlated with negative academic emotions, and positively correlated with academic resilience. Academic resilience was positively correlated with positive academic emotions and negatively correlated with negative academic emotions.
The results of serial mediation analysis revealed that the direct effect of temporal metacognition on sense of purpose was significant (β = .58, 95% CI [.50, .65]), with an effect size (R²) of 34%. The direct effect of temporal metacognition on academic resilience was also significant (β = .33, 95% CI [.23, .43]), with an effect size of 57%. The direct effect of sense of purpose on academic resilience reached significance (β = .52, 95% CI [.41, .61]). The direct effect of temporal metacognition on positive academic emotions was significant (β = .12, 95% CI [.02, .22]), with an effect size of 51%. The direct effect of sense of purpose on positive academic emotions was also significant (β = .32, 95% CI [.21, .44]). Furthermore, the direct effect of academic resilience on positive academic emotions was significant (β = .36, 95% CI [.23, .48]). In addition, the direct effect of temporal metacognition on negative academic emotions was not significant (β = -.05, 95% CI [-.17, .08]). However, the direct effect of sense of purpose on negative academic emotions was significant (β = -.18, 95% CI [-.31, -.05]). The direct effect of academic resilience on negative academic emotions was also significant (β = -.35, 95% CI [-.48, -.21]), with an effect size of 28%. Moreover, the indirect effects for all models were significant. To sum up, we found that sense of purpose and academic resilience are the serial mediation factors in the relationships between temporal metacognition and whether positive or negative academic emotions. In other words, if college students possess better temporal metacognition, it helps them develop a higher sense of purpose, thereby enhancing their academic resilience and more frequently experiencing positive academic emotions. On the other hand, even if students have poor temporal metacognition, improving their sense of purpose and academic resilience can mitigate the negative impact of poor temporal metacognition on negative academic emotions.
For future research, we provided some main advices: (1) Balance the participants’ backgrounds, incorporate control variables or other related variables to enhance the representativeness and validity. Also, relying entirely on self-report measures for statistical inference may have limitations and could lead to response biases, incorporating a diverse range of theoretical validation methods could enhance the robustness and comprehensiveness of the findings. (2) Thoroughly develop the Temporal Metacognition Scale and actively explore other variables to adapt Western theories to the Taiwanese social and cultural context. (3) Developing interventions to enhance temporal metacognition may benefit college students by fostering a more joyful learning experience.
Keywords：college students, sense of purpose, temporal metacognition, academic emotion, academic resilience