Growth Mindset and Self-Perceived Adaptive Intelligence: A Structural Model of Motivation, Metacognition, Self-Regulated Learning, and Academic Adaptation

Drawing on mindset theory, self-regulated learning theory, learner autonomy, and adaptive intelligence theory, this study tested an integrated structural model of the associations between academic growth mindset and self-perceived adaptive intelligence among Jordanian undergraduates. In this study, self-perceived adaptive intelligence refers to students’ perceived wisdom-related, social/practical, creative, and uncertainty-navigation tendencies; it is not an objective or performance-based measure of cognitive ability. The hypothesized sequential mediation structure was retained, but it was estimated and interpreted as a set of theoretically ordered indirect associations through learning motivation, metacognitive awareness, self-regulated learning strategies, and academic adaptation. Learner autonomy was examined as a moderator of the association between self-regulated learning strategies and academic adaptation. Data were obtained from 640 undergraduate students enrolled in Jordanian universities and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling with WarpPLS 8.0. Academic growth mindset was positively associated with learning motivation and metacognitive awareness. Both constructs were positively associated with self-regulated learning strategies, which, in turn, were positively associated with academic adaptation; academic adaptation, in turn, was positively associated with self-perceived adaptive intelligence. The theoretically ordered sequential indirect associations through the motivational and metacognitive routes were statistically significant, whereas learner autonomy did not significantly moderate the association between self-regulated learning strategies and academic adaptation. Because the data were single-wave and self-reported, the term “sequential” refers to the theory-imposed ordering of paths in the statistical model, not to an observed temporal or developmental progression. Accordingly, the findings represent structural associations and do not establish causal sequencing. The findings contribute to intelligence and higher-education research by distinguishing domain-specific academic adaptation from broader self-perceived adaptive intelligence informed by Sternberg’s adaptive intelligence framework.