From dispositional affect to academic goal attainment: the mediating role of coping

The purpose of this research was to examine a mediation model in which coping was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between positive and negative dispositional affect and academic goal attainment. At Time 1, a sample of 217 undergraduate students completed measures of dispositional affect and set a personal academic goal. At Time 2, 4 weeks later, they completed a follow-up questionnaire assessing their coping strategies and degree of goal attainment. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that task-oriented coping significantly mediated the relationship between dispositional positive affect and goal attainment. Results also supported disengagement-oriented coping as a mediator in the relationship between dispositional negative affect and goal attainment. These findings highlight the role of coping as an important process in the relationship between dispositional affect and goal attainment.