Computational thinking and academic imposter syndrome: a serial mediation model of creative and critical thinking

Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationships among computational thinking, creative thinking, critical thinking, and academic imposter syndrome within a serial mediation framework. More specifically, it investigated whether creative thinking and critical thinking sequentially mediate the relationship between computational thinking and academic imposter syndrome among university students. Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed. Data were collected from 728 undergraduate students enrolled at public universities in Türkiye. Participants completed validated self-report instruments assessing computational thinking, creative thinking dispositions, critical thinking dispositions, and academic imposter syndrome. Preliminary analyses were conducted to evaluate the reliability and validity of the measurement instruments. To test the proposed model, serial mediation analyses were performed using Hayes' PROCESS macro (Model 6) in SPSS. Bootstrap procedures with 5,000 resamples were used to estimate indirect effects and 95% confidence intervals. Results: Computational thinking was positively associated with both creative thinking and critical thinking, and creative thinking was also a significant positive predictor of critical thinking. In contrast, computational thinking, creative thinking, and critical thinking were all negatively associated with academic imposter syndrome. The serial mediation analyses further showed that creative thinking and critical thinking sequentially mediated the relationship between computational thinking and academic imposter syndrome. All indirect effects, including the total indirect effect, were statistically significant, as their confidence intervals did not include zero. Discussion: The findings indicate that computational thinking is associated with lower levels of academic imposter syndrome both directly and indirectly through creative and critical thinking. In this sense, higher-order cognitive skills may help explain more adaptive academic self-perceptions and lower levels of imposter-related feelings among university students. These results underscore the importance of integrating computational, creative, and critical thinking into higher education curricula to support both academic development and students' emotional adjustment.