Adaptability, Control, and Failure Dynamics: Exploring a Proposed Mediation Process

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Role of Control and Responsibility in Students’ Motivation

Abstract

This study explores adaptability and control as factors reducing failure dynamics in students’ academic lives. The study examines control and its role in mediating the relationship between adaptability and failure dynamics (anxiety, performance avoidance, self-handicapping, disengagement). Using structural equation modeling, longitudinal data of N = 969 high school students showed that control significantly mediated the relationship between adaptability and failure dynamics: adaptability positively predicted control and control was associated with reduced failure dynamics. Furthermore, analyses led to rejection of an alternative model in which adaptability operates as the mediator between control and failure dynamics. Findings offer conceptual and empirical direction for researchers and practitioners seeking to enhance students’ control and adaptability and reduce failure dynamics in their academic lives.

Authors

• Andrew J. Martin, The University of New South Wales

• Harry Nejad

• Susan Colmar

• Gregory Arief D. Liem, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University