Perceived academic stress, emotion regulation, academic buoyancy, and psychological well-being: a control-value theory-informed analysis

Using Control-Value Theory (CVT) as an interpretive framework, this study examined the statistical associations of perceived academic stress, emotion regulation, and academic buoyancy with psychological well-being among Saudi EFL learners. Rather than testing the appraisal-emotion structure of CVT, the study estimated the relationships among these learner constructs within a single partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) model and used CVT to inform their theoretical interpretation. Data were collected from 250 intermediate-level EFL learners enrolled in institutionally based English programs in Saudi Arabia using the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (PASS), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, an adapted Academic Buoyancy Scale, and an adapted Psychological Well-Being Scale. SmartPLS 4 was used to evaluate the measurement and structural models. The measurement results indicated acceptable internal consistency and convergent validity, with Cronbach’s alpha values ranging from 0.858 to 0.943 and AVE values exceeding 0.50. The specified model accounted for 31.2% of the observed variance in psychological well-being. Emotion regulation yielded the largest observed standardized coefficient in its association with psychological well-being (β = 0.316, p < .001), followed descriptively by perceived academic stress (β = 0.193, p = .014) and academic buoyancy (β = 0.145, p = .026). Because the differences among these coefficients were not tested directly, their ordering is descriptive and cannot be taken as evidence of statistically significant differences in association magnitude. Moreover, because perceived control, task value, and achievement emotions were not directly operationalized, the observed associations do not constitute evidence for the appraisal-emotion processes specified by CVT. Likewise, the positive stress-well-being coefficient provides no basis for concluding that learners made challenge appraisals, experienced eustress, or benefited from academic stress. The observed relationships provide a basis for future longitudinal and intervention studies examining whether changes in these constructs are accompanied by subsequent changes in learner well-being.