Relationship among optimism, entrepreneurial failure fear and entrepreneurial intention in college students / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the main characteristics of college students' entrepreneurial failure fear, and the mediating effect on the relationship between optimism and entrepreneurial intention among college students. Methods: Totally 427 college students were selected. Their optimism trait, entrepreneurial failure fear and entrepreneurial intention were accessed with the Optimism-pessimism Scale (OS), Failure Fear Scale (FFS) and Individual Entrepreneurial Intention Scale IEIS). Results: The average FFS score in college students was (2.8 ± 0.6). The scores of decrease of social value were higher in males than in females (P ＜0.01). The scores of decrease of self-esteem were higher in students from rural than those from cities (P ＜ 0.05). The total FFS scores were lower in freshmen than in sophomores, juniors and seniors (P ＜0.01). OS scores positively predicted IEIS scores (β =0.19, P ＜0.001), and FFS scores partially mediated the relationship between the scores of OS and IEIS (effect size = 0.11, 95％ CI0.04-0.19). Conclusion: This study shows significant gender, birthplace and grade differences in college students' entrepreneurial failure fear. Entrepreneurial failure fear maybe partially mediate the relationship between optimism pessimism and entrepreneurial intention.