Unveiling Risk Profiles: A Latent Profile Analysis of 21st-Century Skills, Resistance to Change, and Cognitive Flexibility

Abstract

Objectives: Limited research utilized a person-centered approach in examining 21st-century skills. This study used latent profile analysis to explore the relationships between resistance to change, cognitive flexibility, and 21st-century skills, including creativity, cooperativity, critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving. Materials and Methods: A convenience sampling approach was used to recruit 502 individuals (342 females; meanage = 21.12 ± 2.34 years) via an online survey. Results: The results showed that creativity, cooperativity, critical thinking, communication, problem-solving, and resistance to change were determined as profile indicators. The cognitive flexibility of the subclasses was also predicted. Furthermore, the results revealed four distinct profiles: (i) average level across all skills (5.8%); (ii) low risk for most skills, moderate for cooperativity (18.1%); (iii) high risk for all skills (55.2%); and (iv) moderate risk for most skills, moderate for cooperativity (20.9%). Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of cognitive flexibility in identifying risk profiles. Using mixture modeling provides a fresh perspective for researchers, potentially aiding in targeted interventions for at-risk university students to enhance their 21st-century skills.