Academic impostor syndrome: Transformation toward growth mindset through a psycho-educational intervention

Facets of Impostor Syndrome include perceptions of not belonging, fraudulent ideation and difficulty internalising success. In Higher Education, this may debilitate confidence, impede achievement and impair wellbeing. In this study, undergraduate students (N = 100) engaged in an ethically approved exercise for course credit, completing a recently published measure of academic impostor syndrome (AIS), along with validated measures of self-esteem (SE), neuroticism (N), sleep quality (SQ) and perceived health competence (PHC). Students then read a psycho-educational intervention designed to counter the negative perceptions in the 10 AIS items by cognitive restructuring through motivational quotes, inspirational examples and confidence-building assertions. The measure was completed a second time, and a related measures t-test showed a significant shift toward adaptive perceptions. As expected, N was positively related and SE was negatively related to AIS, indicating respectively maladaptive and adaptive perceptions. SQ and PHC followed the same adaptive pattern as SE. In a path analysis, the explanatory variables accounted for substantial variance on AIS at times 1 and 2 (34% & 58%) through direct and indirect effects. Results will be discussed with reference to dispositional, contextual and learning factors that might reorient vulnerable students toward a growth mindset and a flourishing student experience.