Is sensitivity to injustice a precursor to anxiety? The moderating role of stress: Evidence from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies

IF 3.5 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Personality and Individual Differences Pub Date : 2025-03-31 DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2025.113190

Xinyi Zhu , Jian Fang , Yiming Yu , Morris Hoffman , Eyal Aharoni , Qun Yang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Justice sensitivity (JS) plays a key role in prosocial behavior but is also linked to anxiety, especially under stress. This study examines how JS predicts generalized anxiety (GA) under different levels of perceived stress (PS). In Study 1, a cross-sectional survey of 621 college students assessed the relationship between JS, GA, and the moderating role of PS. In Study 2, a longitudinal natural experiment with 164 students explored how JS influenced GA at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of the semester under stressful conditions. Both victim justice sensitivity (VJS) and altruistic justice sensitivity (AJS) predicted GA through negative affect (NA). Higher levels of PS intensified the relationship between VJS and GA by increasing NA. Students with high VJS experienced greater NA during stressful events, such as final exams, while those with low VJS showed minimal changes in NA. The findings indicate that JS, particularly VJS, can contribute to emotional problems under high-stress conditions, suggesting the importance of addressing JS in interventions aimed at improving emotional health for students with high JS. These results offer new perspectives on understanding anxiety and stress in relation to JS and inform potential strategies for supporting mental well-being.

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来源期刊

Personality and Individual Differences PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-

CiteScore

8.50

自引率

4.70%

发文量

577

审稿时长

41 days

期刊介绍： Personality and Individual Differences is devoted to the publication of articles (experimental, theoretical, review) which aim to integrate as far as possible the major factors of personality with empirical paradigms from experimental, physiological, animal, clinical, educational, criminological or industrial psychology or to seek an explanation for the causes and major determinants of individual differences in concepts derived from these disciplines. The editors are concerned with both genetic and environmental causes, and they are particularly interested in possible interaction effects.