Destructive Self‐Leadership? Self‐Leadership, Maladaptive Coping, and Stress in College Students

Prior research has examined self-leadership as a proactive self-regulatory approach for the management of stress and anxiety in college students. However, little is known about the possible negative effects of self-regulatory approaches such as self-leadership. Using the transactional model of stress and coping and the interaction model of stress, anxiety, and coping as theoretical frameworks, this study investigates a parallel multiple mediation model of the relationship between self-leadership and state anxiety as mediated by adaptive coping behaviours and maladaptive coping behaviours in a sample of 143 undergraduate students. Results suggest that self-leadership, paradoxically, is positively related to both adaptive coping behaviours and maladaptive coping behaviours in students. Moreover, the magnitude and significance of the indirect effects of self-leadership on state anxiety through maladaptive coping behaviours are greater than the indirect effects of self-leadership through adaptive coping behaviours. This study is therefore the first to identify possible detrimental effects of self-leadership on individual outcomes, that is, destructive self-leadership. Implications, both theoretical and practical, are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.