The developmental trajectory of college students’ psychological flexibility: Based on latent growth model

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the development law of college students' psychological flexibility (PF), the influencing factors of demographic variables, and group heterogeneity through longitudinal tracking. This study collected the PF data of 1068 college students in three times and constructed the data model. Results show that the PF level of college students exhibited a significant upward trend across the three measurements, gender and left-behind experience had a remarkable impact on the slope factor. It means the PF of college students improves over time, gender and left-behind experience may affect the speed and amplitude of the improvement. The development trajectory of PF of college students showed obvious group heterogeneity and could be divided into the “high flexibility-low development group” (92%) and the “low flexibility-high development group” (8%). It means college students can be divided into two categories, which allows for the implementation of tailored psychological counseling and intervention methods. The practical significance of this study is that it has a certain grasp of the development track and law of college students' PF, which is helpful for mental health educators to teach students by their aptitude. According to the development characteristics of different types of college students' PF, different methods of psychological counseling and intervention are adopted to improve the effectiveness of mental health education.