特质乐观如何影响心理韧性：自我效能感与适应性应对的作用

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Educational Psychology

Abstract

Background: College students face mounting psychological pressures, making the relationship between dispositional optimism and psychological resilience a critical research focus. However, the underlying mechanisms connecting these constructs remain insufficiently explored. Purpose: This study examines the associations among dispositional optimism, self-efficacy, and adaptive coping strategies in relation to psychological resilience, while controlling for common method variance (CMV). Methods: We surveyed 504 university students in Zhejiang Province using validated scales. Data were analyzed via correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (DWLS estimation) with ULMC-based CMV assessment, and bootstrapped mediation tests (5,000 resamples) in JASP 0.96. Results: After controlling for CMV, dispositional optimism showed no significant direct association with psychological resilience (β = 0.192, p > 0.05). The indirect pathway via adaptive coping remained significant (effect = 0.030, 95% BootCI [0.004, 0.061]), whereas the indirect pathway via self-efficacy (effect = 0.065, 95% BootCI [–0.016, 0.239]) and the serial mediation (optimism to self-efficacy to adaptive coping to resilience) (effect = 0.014, 95% BootCI [–0.006, 0.069]) were not supported. Conclusion: The correlational findings suggest that adaptive coping serves as a more stable indirect mechanism linking dispositional optimism to psychological resilience, whereas the previously emphasized roles of self-efficacy and the sequential chain may be inflated by common method variance. Pending replication in longitudinal or experimental designs, interventions could consider directly teaching adaptive coping strategies, rather than assuming a mandatory "self-efficacy first" sequence. This study highlights the importance of controlling for CMV in self-report mediation research and offers a cautious, evidence-informed direction for future resilience-focused interventions.

Keywords

adaptive coping, college students, dispositional optimism, psychological resilience, self-efficacy, Sequential mediation

Received

06 February 2026

Accepted

30 September 2026

Copyright

© 2026 Wang, Hu, Dai and Wang. 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:

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