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. 2024 Jun 7;12(1):337.
doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-01843-1.

The relationship between self-regulation, cognitive flexibility, and resilience among students: a structural equation modeling

Mohammad Nakhostin-Khayyat  1 , Mahmoud Borjali  2 , Maryam Zeinali  3 , Deniz Fardi  4 , Ali Montazeri  5   6
Affiliations

The relationship between self-regulation, cognitive flexibility, and resilience among students: a structural equation modeling

Mohammad Nakhostin-Khayyat et al. BMC Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: Cognitive flexibility is an important construct that contributes to one's own thoughts, behaviors, and feelings to achieve his or her goals. Thus, it could play an essential role in students' educational achievements. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of cognitive flexibility in the relationship between self-regulation and resilience among students.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on a sample of students during the 2022 and 2023 academic years. Students were selected from Tehran and Karaj universities (two metropolitans in central Iran). Data collection instruments included the Bouffard's Self-Regulation Scale, the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RSC). Subsequently, the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling via SPSS and AMOS software to examine the relationships among variables.

Results: In all 302 students participated in the study. The mean age of students was 25.8 (SD = 4.05) years. The findings indicated that self-regulation had a marked positive direct effect on cognitive flexibility (β = 0.23, p < 0.001), and resilience (β = 0.88, t = 19.50, p < 0.001). Similarly, cognitive flexibility displayed a strong positive influence on resilience (β = 0.1, p < 0.001) it showed an indirect mediating role between self-regulation and resilience (0.02), while resilience demonstrated a negative indirect effect on self-regulation and cognitive flexibility (-0.23). The goodness of fit indices validated the proposed model. Furthermore, the analysis revealed the significance of the final model's direct path coefficients, underscoring the mediating role of cognitive flexibility between self-regulation and resilience among students.

Conclusion: The findings indicated a pivotal interrelationship among self-regulation, cognitive flexibility, and resilience in students. The significant positive relationship among these constructs underscores the importance of fostering cognitive flexibility practices and self-regulation in educational settings.

Keywords: Cognitive enhancers; Iran; Resilience; Self-regulation; Students.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The relationship between self-regulation (SR), cognitive flexibility (CF), and resilience (RE) derived from the structural equation modeling
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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