Inconclusive prospective effects between fear of failure, academic buoyancy, and academic procrastination among Chinese primary school students: A reassessment of Fang et al. (2026)
Abstract
Fang et al. concluded reciprocal prospective associations between fear of failure, academic buoyancy, and academic procrastination among primary school students. However, significant cross-lagged parameters do not by themselves establish genuine prospective influence because similar estimates may arise through alternative statistical processes. Using simulated data that reproduced the sample size and correlation matrix reported by Fang et al., I examined whether their conclusions were robust across several defensible analytic specifications. The pattern of results depended strongly on analytic choice: some models suggested positive prospective associations, whereas others indicated negative or null effects. When estimates from all specifications were combined using meta-analytic methods, no overall effect reached statistical significance. Accordingly, the available evidence does not provide a firm basis for concluding that fear of failure, academic buoyancy, and academic procrastination exert reciprocal prospective influences on one another. In line with multiverse-analysis recommendations, conclusions should be drawn from the collective pattern across reasonable analytical alternatives rather than from a single model.
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BibTeX
@misc{sorjonen2026inconclusive,
title = {{Inconclusive prospective effects between fear of failure, academic buoyancy, and academic procrastination among Chinese primary school students: A reassessment of Fang et al. (2026)}},
author = {Kimmo Sorjonen},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/f472x_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/f472x_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Inconclusive prospective effects between fear of failure, academic buoyancy, and academic procrastination among Chinese primary school students: A reassessment of Fang et al. (2026)
AU - Kimmo Sorjonen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/10
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/f472x_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/f472x_v1/
AB - Fang et al. concluded reciprocal prospective associations between fear of failure, academic buoyancy, and academic procrastination among primary school students. However, significant cross-lagged parameters do not by themselves establish genuine prospective influence because similar estimates may arise through alternative statistical processes. Using simulated data that reproduced the sample size and correlation matrix reported by Fang et al., I examined whether their conclusions were robust across several defensible analytic specifications. The pattern of results depended strongly on analytic choice: some models suggested positive prospective associations, whereas others indicated negative or null effects. When estimates from all specifications were combined using meta-analytic methods, no overall effect reached statistical significance. Accordingly, the available evidence does not provide a firm basis for concluding that fear of failure, academic buoyancy, and academic procrastination exert reciprocal prospective influences on one another. In line with multiverse-analysis recommendations, conclusions should be drawn from the collective pattern across reasonable analytical alternatives rather than from a single model.
ER -