Cognitive Flexibility and Mental Well-Being: Fear of Negative Evaluation and Academic Perfectionism as Serial Mediators

Abstract

This study examined the serial multiple mediator roles of the fear of negative evaluation and academic perfectionism on the relation between cognitive flexibility and mental well-being in a sample of Turkish university students. A total of 320 students [162 (50.6%) female and 158 (49.4%) male, M age = 20.37; SD = 2.05] in two separate public universities were involved in this study. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, and the Academic Perfectionism Scale were used to obtain the data. We investigated the serial multiple mediations roles by using bootstrapping based PROCESS macro (Model 6). The results revealed that significant relationships between the variables. Moreover, the findings indicated that fear of negative evaluation and academic perfectionism subsequently and partially mediated the relation between cognitive flexibility and mental well-being. Implications for the research’s results are discussed and recommendations for future direction are offered.