The mediating role of academic, social and emotional self-efficacy in the relationship between cognitive flexibility and psychological well-being

The aim of the present study was to determine the mediating role of academic, social and emotional self-efficacy in the relationship between cognitive flexibility and psychological well-being. The statistical population of the study was all female and male students of the twelfth grade of the second high school of education in the first district of Ahvaz, among whom 280 people were selected voluntarily. The research design was correlational descriptive and the data were collected using cognitive flexibility scale (2010), psychological well-being questionnaire (2007) and self-efficacy questionnaire (1985). In the present study, Pearson correlation and structural equation modeling method were used to analyze the hypotheses and evaluate the relationships between the variables. Findings of direct relationships between variables showed that cognitive flexibility is positively correlated with psychological well-being, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and emotional self-efficacy. And the variable of social self-efficacy and emotional self-efficacy with psychological well-being had a very positive relationship, but the causal relationship between academic self-efficacy and psychological well-being was not significant. In addition, among the three components of self-efficacy, only social self-efficacy was able to play the role of mediator between cognitive flexibility and psychological well-being. Given that self-efficacy plays a mediating role in the relationship between cognitive flexibility and psychological well-being, self-efficacy must be considered to explain this relationship.