The Mediating Role of Personal Intelligence in the Relationship between Mind Wandering and Emotional Flexibility with Language Anxiety in Students with Language Disorders

Children with speech and language difficulties are at risk for learning and behavioral problems. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of personal intelligence in the relationship between mind wandering and emotional flexibility with language anxiety in students with language disorders. The research method was correlational, using the path analysis approach. The statistical population of the study included all secondary school students in East Azerbaijan province in 2024 who had speech disorders recorded in their academic records. Using purposive sampling, 200 students were selected as the sample. Data were collected using the Personal Intelligence, Emotional Flexibility, Mind Wandering Questionnaires and the short form of the Language Anxiety Questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using Pearson correlation, Sobel and Bootstrap tests, along with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicated that mind wandering and emotional flexibility, through the mediating role of personal intelligence, played a significant role in explaining language anxiety in students with speech disorders. In total, 28% of the variance in language anxiety was explained by the variables in the model. The direct effects of personal intelligence (-0.24), emotional flexibility (-0.40), and mind wandering (0.02) on the variance of language anxiety were observed. The indirect effects of emotional flexibility (t-value = -3.05) and mind wandering (t-value = 2.04) with the mediation of personal intelligence in explaining the variance of language anxiety were significant. These findings suggest that promoting personal intelligence and emotional flexibility could be effective in reducing language anxiety among students with speech disorders.