النموذج السببي لتأثير التنافر المعرفي والتجول العقلي وإعاقة الذات الأكاديمية في التحصيل الدراسي لطلبة كلية التربية بجامعة بني سويف
This research aimed to identify the best causal model that explains the direct and indirect effects of cognitive dissonance, mental wandering, and academic self-handicapping on academic achievement of undergraduates. The descriptive approach was used, and (449) male and female in the fourth year of the Faculty of Education at Beni-Suef University participated in the research in the second semester 2021-2022, with age mean (21.93) years and a standard deviation (1.66), and the following scales were applied to them: cognitive dissonance scale by Heath (2011), mental wandering scale by Mowlem et al. (2016), academic self- handicapping scale by Melhem (2022), all of which adapted by the researchers, and undergraduates’ grades were relied upon at the end of the second semester 2021-2022. By using path analysis, the results showed that the best causal model out of (4) competing models is the one in which academic self-handicapping mediates the relationship between cognitive dissonance and mental wandering and academic achievement. The results also showed a direct and positive effect of each of mental wandering and cognitive dissonance in academic self-handicapping, which directly and negatively affected academic achievement, and the values of these effects were (0.539), (0.119), and (-0.138), respectively. It was also found a positive and significant effect of cognitive dissonance on mental wandering with a value of (0.463), and all of these effects were significant at (0.01). Results assured that reducing academic self-handicapping, which negatively affects academic achievement, can be accomplished by controlling both mental wandering and cognitive dissonance, which effect appeared only on academic achievement with academic self-handicapping presence, and all of this may lead to improving undergraduates’ academic achievement level. (Published abstract)