Development and validation of an Academic Involution Scale for College Students in China

Abstract

The term “nei juan” (in English “involution”) has become a buzzword in recent Chinese tertiary educational contexts, denoting the intense competition and anxiety among Chinese college students. This project aims to develop a reliable and valid scale measuring Chinese college students' competitive psychology, that is, an Academic Involution Scale for College Students in China (AISCSC). To this end, the scale was administered online to 1015 Chinese college students from a university from the Northern China. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in a determination of three factors (i.e., academic behavior, social activity, and social relationship) with a strong psychometric basis. The correlations between students' academic anxiety and their involutional behavior further confirmed the concurrent validity of AISCSC.

A study on how to enhance the well-being of young professionals confronting internal overcompetition in China: Prospect of reducing the stress of Nei Juan

“…However, due to resource shortages, the malicious formation of competition among individuals for comparison with others persists, multiplying the pressure on students and local communities and leading to a decline in motivation. It is challenging for the government's policies to immediately resolve the formation of vicious competition and the resulting decline in motivation, fatigue and stress, especially as people increasingly opt for a laid-back approach (Wang et al, 2024). If the aim is to address internal overcompetition, we believe that it is meaningful to consider not only the government's policy but also the causes of reduced motivation and the formation of fatigue and stress, neither of which can be resolved quickly.…”