ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1630873
Psychological richness can enhance innovative behavior of Chinese college students: the chain mediating role of cognitive flexibility and creative self-efficacy
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, China
- 2Southwest University Faculty of Psychology, Chongqing, China
- 3College of Continuing Education Hunan Applied Technology University, Changde, China
- 4Student Affairs Department of the Party Committee, Yan'an University, Yan'an, China
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To investigate the relationship between psychological richness and innovative behavior among Chinese college students, as well as the roles of cognitive flexibility and creative self-efficacy in this relationship, this study employed the Psychologically Rich Life Questionnaire, Cognitive Flexibility Scale, Creative Self-Efficacy Scale, and Innovative Behavior Scale to survey 669 Chinese college students. The results show that: (1) Psychological richness positively predicts innovative behavior; (2) Cognitive flexibility and creative self-efficacy respectively play a partial mediating role between psychological richness and innovative behavior; (3) Cognitive flexibility and creative self-efficacy play a chain mediating role between psychological richness and innovative behavior. The findings enrich the research results in the field of innovative behavior among Chinese college students and provide enlightenment for the cultivation of innovative talents in Chinese higher education.
Keywords: psychological richness1, innovative behavior2, cognitive flexibility3, creative self-efficacy4, College student5
Received: 18 May 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 余, He, Wang, Li, Hu and Gao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuwei Gao, Student Affairs Department of the Party Committee, Yan'an University, Yan'an, China
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