Nail Hidaya Afandi, Adi Atmoko, M. Ramli, Muslihati Muslihati, Azizah Abdullah
Early adulthood should be a phase of openness to every experience in life so that primary positive changes can be experienced. However, there is a tendency among early adult students to avoid the experience of failure in a way that can harm them. This study was conducted to determine the factors underlying the fear of university students towards failure with a high fear category. Collective case studies were conducted on three students from Indonesia. The informants had a high category of atychiphobia scores. Data analysis was performed using NVivo 12 Pro. There were three Indonesian students interviewed with a background of high to very high atychiphobia levels. Three informants avoided failure because of efforts to maintain a (1) self-image from family (parents and siblings) and (2) protect themselves from family reactions that would consider them ungrateful, trivialization, and disappointment from family. Meanwhile, there was a third factor that was only experienced by two informants, namely (3) feelings of shame and guilt internally (self) and externally (family). It can be concluded that maintaining self-image, avoiding shame and guilt, and protecting oneself from bad reactions from external parties are three triggers for atychiphobia that is oriented towards interactions with parents and siblings in early adulthood. © 2026 Nail Hidaya AFANDI, Adi ATMOKO, M. RAMLI, Muslihati MUSLIHATI & Azizah ABDULLAH.
Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia; Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia
