Optimism and happiness in undergraduate students: Cognitive flexibility and adjustment to university life as mediators

Abstract

In accordance with the goal of the positive psychology ap-proach, this study was designed to build an understanding of the relation-ships among optimism, cognitive flexibility, adjustment to university life and happiness by proposing a multiple mediation model. A total of 386 undergraduates (64% female and 36% male) between 18-22 years partici-pated in the study. The participants were recruited from a small university in Turkey. The Life Orientation Test, Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, Uni-versity Life Scale, and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire Short Form were utilized as measures. The results showed that optimism, cognitive flexibil-ity, adjustment to university life, and happiness positively correlated. The findings from the mediational analyses also indicated that the serial multi-ple mediation of cognitive flexibility and adjustment to university life in the hypothetical model was statistically significant and explained approximately 50% of the variance in happiness.