Longitudinal Associations Between Cognitive Flexibility and Academic Stress in Final‐Year High School Students: A Parallel Latent Growth Curve Model Approach

INTRODUCTION: Students in the final year of high school often experience substantial academic stress. This study examined how self-perceived academic stress and cognitive flexibility changed and were associated across Grade 12. METHODS: Three-wave self-report data were collected in China in 2024 from 1754 Grade 12 students (mean age = 17.81 years, SD = 0.73; 1742 were included in the covariate-adjusted growth models). A parallel-process latent growth curve modeling estimated the trajectories both constructs, associations between their growth factors, and directional paths from the initial level of each construct to subsequent change in the other. A latent-basis model with wave-specific residual covariances assessed robustness. RESULTS: Cognitive flexibility increased on average, whereas academic stress decreased. Higher initial cognitive flexibility was associated with lower initial academic stress. The rates of change were negatively associated in the primary linear model, but this association was not statistically significant in the robustness model. Neither directional cross-domain regression path was statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The baseline association was robust, whereas evidence for coordinated change was sensitive to model specification and prospective cross-domain effects were not supported. Future research using more frequent assessments and experimental designs could clarify the temporal processes linking self-perceived cognitive flexibility and academic stress.