Career Adaptability and Academic Achievement Among Chinese High School Students: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study of Social Cognitive and Metacognitive Mediating Mechanisms

Career adaptability has been linked to academic achievement, yet the mechanisms underlying this association remain insufficiently understood, particularly among adolescents in highly competitive, exam-oriented educational systems. Based on Career Construction Theory (CCT) and the performance model of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), this study tested whether academic self-efficacy, academic outcome expectations, and metacognitive strategies mediated this association. A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted with 519 students from two general high schools in central China (40.85% boys; mean age = 16.28 years, SD = 0.82). Career adaptability was measured at Time 1, the three mediators were measured at Time 2, and academic achievement was measured at Time 1 and Time 3 using standardized examination scores in Chinese, mathematics, and English. After controlling for baseline achievement and demographic covariates, structural equation modeling with bias-corrected bootstrapping showed that T1 career adaptability had a significant total effect on T3 academic achievement, whereas the direct effect was nonsignificant after the mediators were included. Significant indirect effects were found through academic self-efficacy and metacognitive strategies. Academic outcome expectations did not significantly mediate the association, and the pathway from academic self-efficacy to academic outcome expectations was not supported. These findings indicate that career adaptability may contribute to later academic achievement mainly through students’ academic self-efficacy and metacognitive strategy use.