Future-Oriented Motivation and Emotion Regulation Jointly Decreased Acculturative Stress in University Students With Multiple Marginalized Identities

Abstract

This study investigates the roles of future-time perspective and emotion regulation in predicting end-of-semester acculturative stress among undergraduate students, with a specific focus on those holding multiple marginalized identities (MMI), who often demonstrate higher acculturative stress in higher education spaces. Students from a 4-year public university in the US (N = 79, median age 22 years), a designated Hispanic Serving Institution, completed surveys at the beginning and end of a semester that captured their demographic information, future time perspective value (FTPV), difficulties in emotion regulation (DER), and acculturative stress. Multiple regression model, controlling for initial acculturative stress, revealed a significant interaction effect between FTPV and DER in predicting stress levels (βint = .17, p < .05). Simple effects analysis demonstrated that students with low DER experienced reduced acculturative stress when valuing future goals, while those with high DER faced increased stress when emphasizing future goals. A multi-group latent difference score analysis highlighted that this interaction was particularly strong among students with MMI, showing significant predictive effects (βint = .77, p < .01). Conversely, the interaction was not significant in non-MMI students. These findings emphasize the importance of targeted support for university students with MMI to mitigate acculturative stress. Implications emphasize integrating culturally responsive teaching strategies and emotion regulation training that can incorporate future goal setting in university contexts to foster supportive and inclusive environments for students, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds.