Does campus ostracism stimulate college students’ impulsive buying? The roles of negative emotions and self-efficacy

Lan Li^*, Shengqiao Wang^*
College of Business and Administration, Shanghai Business School, Shanghai, China
* Corresponding Author: Lan Li. Email: email ; Shengqiao Wang. Email: email

Journal of Psychology in Africa https://doi.org/10.32604/jpa.2026.078592

Received 04 January 2026; Accepted 11 May 2026; Published online 22 July 2026

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Abstract

This study investigated the mediating role of negative emotions and the moderating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between student campus ostracism and impulsive buying. A three-wave online survey was conducted, with 401 college students from a university in East China (35.9% male and 64.1% female, 54.6% first year and 45.4% second year). The students completed measures of campus ostracism, negative emotions, self-efficacy, and impulsive buying. Linear regression analysis results show that campus ostracism was associated with impulsive buying. Negative emotions mediated the relationship between campus ostracism and impulsive buying for higher impulsive buying. Self-efficacy mitigated the campus ostracism effects on impulsive buying via negative emotions, to be lower with higher self-efficacy. These results suggest that the Need-Threat Temporal Model and Conservation of Resources Theory can be applied to campus ostracism and college students’ impulsive, as ostracism exacerbates negative emotional states, while self-efficacy functions as a resilience factor, alleviating this adverse pathway. These findings indicate a need for student counselling and development services aimed at alleviating college students’ campus ostracism and impulsive buying tendencies.