Academic Procrastination and Malevolent Creativity: The Serial Mediating Roles of Professional Commitment and Psychological Capital, with Teacher Support as a Moderator

Abstract Background Academic interest in malevolent creativity among university students has increased substantially. However, the potential intermediary and moderating functions of professional commitment, PsyCap, and teacher support on the association between academic procrastination and malevolent creativity have yet to be fully investigated. Methods This study is based on stratified random sampling. Survey questionnaires were gathered from 1,087 college students in central China. Data on their malevolent creativity, academic procrastination, professional commitment, psychological capital and teacher support were collected. Descriptive and correlational analyses were carried out using SPSS, while the PROCESS macro was utilized to test the hypothesized model. Results (1) AP has a remarkable positive predictive influence on malevolent creativity. (2) In the association between academic procrastination and MC, professional commitment and psychological capital serve as independent mediators and exhibit a sequential mediating effect. (3) Teacher support significantly moderated both the AP–PC and AP–PsyCap pathways. Specifically, higher teacher support strengthened the negative association between academic procrastination and professional commitment, whereas it buffered the negative association between academic procrastination and psychological capital. (4) The conditional indirect effect through professional commitment was significant at high levels of teacher support but not at low levels. Conclusions The findings suggest that the association between AP and malevolent creativity among university students, investigate the chain-mediating roles of professional commitment and PsyCap, and examine whether teacher support moderates the AP–PC and AP–PsyCap pathways. These results offer a more differentiated comprehension of the psychological and contextual mechanisms linking academic procrastination with malevolent creativity among college students.