Objective: Death anxiety is an important existential concern that can affect students’ psychological well-being and academic functioning. This study examined whether academic procrastination (TPS) mediates the association between problem-solving styles (PSS) and death anxiety among university students.
Methods: A descriptive–correlational, cross-sectional design was used. A total of 500 undergraduate students completed self-report measures of PSS, TPS, and death anxiety (DAS). Structural equation modeling techniques, specifically a two-step approach comprising confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis, were conducted. Bootstrapping procedures were applied to test indirect effects.
Results: The hypothesized mediation model demonstrated acceptable fit. Maladaptive PSS were associated with higher TPS, and higher procrastination was associated with higher death anxiety. The indirect effect of maladaptive PSS on death anxiety through TPS was statistically significant. The direct effect also remained significant, indicating partial mediation. R² values indicated that the model accounted for a meaningful proportion of variance in TPS and a smaller, but still meaningful, proportion of variance in death anxiety.
Conclusion: The findings are consistent with a cognitive–behavioral–existential framework in which maladaptive problem-solving patterns are associated with TPS, which in turn is related to elevated death anxiety. Because the data are cross-sectional, causal inferences cannot be made; nevertheless, the results suggest that integrating problem-solving training with approaches targeting task avoidance may be a relevant focus for addressing students’ existential and academic concerns in university counseling settings.