Predictors of imposter syndrome among females in the workplace

This study investigated the impact of organizational factors (job industry, title, and company size) and interpersonal variables (perceived stress, social connectedness, social assurance, and workplace support) on imposterism among working women. Utilizing a cross-sectional online survey design, psychometric data were analyzed from a sample of 349 actively employed women aged 18–64 (M age = 35.4 years) across diverse corporate sectors. One-way ANOVAs revealed a significant developmental shift: younger women (aged 18–34) exhibited the highest levels of imposterism, which systematically decreased across older cohorts (F(2, 346) = 12.16, p < .001), while structural factors remained invariant. Stepwise linear regression analyses demonstrated that perceived stress was the primary positive predictor of imposterism across early and mid-career phases, explaining up to 30% of the variance, whereas social connectedness served as the primary protective buffer in late-career professionals. These findings suggest that female imposterism is invariant to broad macro-organizational roles but highly sensitive to developmental lifecycles and micro-level interpersonal support systems.