This study examined how extraversion relates to psychological well-being among 335 Chinese international students at a public university in Malaysia, focusing on positive emotional intensity, cognitive reappraisal, and positive emotional expression. Using structural equation modeling, the model explained 48.1% of the variance in psychological well-being. Extraversion was significantly associated with both psychological well-being and positive emotional intensity. While the overall sequential mediation effect was not supported, conditional mediation emerged at specific levels of cognitive reappraisal, with stronger effects observed at lower levels. These findings suggest that sequential mediation may operate in a context-dependent rather than universal manner. The patterns observed may reflect cultural or situational factors influencing emotional processing, highlighting the need for future research incorporating direct measures of cultural and contextual influences.
Xu et al. (2026) studied this question.