TY  - EJOU
AU  - Ruan, Yunsheng 

TI  - From cognition to behavior: Proactive personality pathways and academic performance of college students
T2  - Journal of Psychology in Africa

PY  - 
VL  - 
IS  - 
SN  - 1815-5626

AB  - The study examined the role of proactive personality in influencing academic performance among Chinese university students, with a focus on the mediating roles of academic self-efficacy and learning engagement. A total of 378 Chinese undergraduate students (females = 49.7%, juniors = 26.5%) participated in the study. Data on proactive personality, academic self-efficacy, and learning engagement were collected using standardized scales, and academic performance was measured via self-reported Grade Point Averages. Structural equation modelling with bootstrap resampling results indicated that proactive personality had a significant direct effect on academic performance, accounting for 63.28% of the total effect. The indirect effects operated through three significant pathways: the independent mediating roles of academic self-efficacy (18.48%) and learning engagement (14.78%), as well as their sequential chain mediation effect (3.23%). Together, these findings provide strong empirical evidence for the proposed pathways linking proactive personality to academic performance. Furthermore, the findings underscore the importance of fostering students’ efficacy beliefs and learning engagement synergistically in order to enhance academic achievement in higher education.
KW  - proactive personality; academic performance; academic self-efficacy; learning engagement; chain mediation

DO  - 10.32604/jpa.2026.079487