Metacognitive awareness of reading strategies refers to a learner’s conscious knowledge and regulation of the mental moves that make academic reading work: planning before tackling a text, monitoring comprehension along the way, and repairing understanding when it breaks down. Decades of educational psychology have established that students who report high levels of this awareness tend to engage more deeply with English-language academic materials, a matter of no small consequence in medical fields where the primary literature is overwhelmingly published in English. What has remained murky is how this awareness relates, simultaneously, to the wider constellation of traits that students bring to the page, from their confidence in their own capabilities to the ways they regulate difficult emotions.

The study, conducted by Mohammad Hassan Seif, Mohammad Hosein Alborzi Haghighi, and Fahimeh Rajabi of Payame Noor University in Tehran, drew on 380 complete records from medical sciences students enrolled in a General English course. The dataset formed the medical sciences subgroup of a broader two-group parent study, and the researchers used a cross-sectional analytical design, meaning they measured all variables at a single point in time and modeled the statistical associations among them rather than tracking change over months or years. All participants provided electronic informed consent after reviewing an online information sheet, and the protocol was approved by the university’s research ethics committee in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

What makes the analysis technically distinctive is its decision to work at the level of individual questionnaire dimensions rather than collapsing each instrument into a single total score. The team retained the manuscript’s observed-variable path framework but represented the multidimensional predictors by their established subscale scores: five dimensions from the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30, nine dimensions from the short form of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and three goal-orientation dimensions. In total, six linked path equations were estimated, with the three goal dimensions, general self-efficacy, mindfulness, and metacognitive awareness of reading and learning strategies treated as endogenous variables whose values the model attempted to explain. The three parallel goal-orientation disturbances were allowed to covary, but the researchers deliberately resisted the temptation to add residual covariances or data-driven paths suggested by modification indices, a restraint that keeps the model closer to its theoretical specification.

The headline result is that this dimension-specific model accounted for 38.4 percent of the variance in metacognitive awareness of reading strategies, a substantial share for a criterion as complex as strategic reading. Among the direct associations, general self-efficacy emerged as the strongest positive predictor, with a standardized coefficient of 0.379. Students who believed in their own capacity to organize and execute the actions required to manage reading tasks were markedly more likely to report planning, monitoring, and problem-solving strategies. Mindfulness followed with a coefficient of 0.207, suggesting that the capacity for nonjudgmental, present-moment attention is intertwined with the ability to notice when comprehension falters and to do something about it.

The emotion-regulation findings are where the study becomes genuinely counterintuitive. Positive beliefs about worry, a subscale of the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 that captures the conviction that worrying is useful and helps one cope, showed a positive direct association with metacognitive awareness, at 0.201. Refocusing on planning, a cognitive emotion-regulation strategy that involves thinking about what to do next rather than dwelling on distress, was also positively associated, at 0.195, as was positive reappraisal, the practice of reinterpreting negative events in more constructive terms, at 0.133. In other words, a certain degree of productive worry, channeled into planning and reappraisal, traveled alongside stronger strategic reading awareness.

Yet the negative predictors tell an equally important story. Positive refocusing, which involves redirecting attention to pleasant thoughts instead of the actual problem, was negatively associated with metacognitive awareness at minus 0.178, hinting that avoidance dressed up as optimism may leave readers less practiced at confronting and repairing genuine comprehension failures. Cognitive confidence, the belief in the reliability of one’s own memory and judgments, was negatively associated at minus 0.167, a pattern consistent with the idea that overconfident readers may feel less need to monitor themselves. Performance orientation, a goal orientation centered on demonstrating ability relative to others, was also negatively associated at minus 0.167, while beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of worry showed a negative association of minus 0.127. The contrast between positive beliefs about worry and beliefs in its uncontrollability underscores that it is not worry per se but how students appraise it that matters.

Beyond the direct paths, the researchers estimated indirect effects using a nonparametric bootstrap procedure with 5,000 resamples, a technique that builds an empirical sampling distribution for each indirect pathway without assuming normality. Several of these total indirect effects produced confidence intervals that excluded zero, indicating statistically robust indirect associations flowing through the model’s intermediate variables. The authors are careful, however, to frame these decompositions as exploratory. Because the data are cross-sectional, the model cannot establish that one factor temporally precedes another, and the indirect pathways should be read as conditional associations rather than causal mediation.

Global model fit was mixed, and the authors report it transparently. The chi-square statistic of 8.87 with three degrees of freedom yielded a p-value of .031, technically significant, while the comparative fit index of 0.998 and the standardized root mean residual of 0.008 were excellent. The root mean square error of approximation of 0.072 sat in an acceptable range, but the Tucker-Lewis index of 0.838 fell below conventional thresholds, a common artifact in low-degrees-of-freedom models where few constraints are imposed. The researchers present these indices as they are, without overclaiming, and emphasize that the value of the analysis lies in resolving an interpretive problem rather than in achieving perfect fit statistics.

That interpretive problem is the study’s most broadly instructive contribution. When multidimensional questionnaires are collapsed into total scores, dimensions that pull in opposite directions can cancel each other out or masquerade as a single uniform effect, obscuring patterns that matter for theory and practice. By re-estimating the original path framework at the dimension level, the team showed that associations within the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30, the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and goal orientation were heterogeneous and sometimes opposite in sign. For educators in medical sciences, the practical implication is that interventions aimed at strengthening strategic reading may need to be equally specific: cultivating self-efficacy and planning-focused emotion regulation looks promising, while simply encouraging students to think happy thoughts, or to trust their first impressions of a text, may work against the very awareness that deep reading requires. For researchers, the message is methodological: the psychological architecture of learning is built from dimensions, and the blueprint only becomes visible when each beam is measured on its own terms.

Subject of Research: Metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and its psychological correlates among medical sciences students

Article Title: Learner-reported factors associated with metacognitive awareness of reading strategies among Iranian medical sciences students: a cross-sectional study

Article References: Seif, M. H., Haghighi, M. H. A., & Rajabi, F. (2026). Learner-reported factors associated with metacognitive awareness of reading strategies among Iranian medical sciences students: a cross-sectional study. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-10568-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-026-10568-1

Keywords: metacognition, reading strategies, medical education, self-efficacy, mindfulness, cognitive emotion regulation, goal orientation, path analysis, cross-sectional study, educational psychology, Iran, BMC Medical Education

The study, published open access in Discover Psychology, is grounded in positive psychology rather than in the deficit-focused tradition that has long dominated occupational research. Instead of asking what breaks accountants under pressure, the team asked what builds them up. Their framework drew on four candidate strengths: proactivity, the dispositional tendency to anticipate change and act on it before being forced to; self-esteem, the overall evaluative judgment a person makes of their own worth; goal orientation, the motivational pattern that directs effort toward learning and mastery; and occupational prestige, the social standing attached to the profession itself. Career adaptability, the outcome variable, is a construct from career construction theory describing the resources people use to face occupational transitions, encompassing concern about the future, control over one’s path, curiosity about possibilities, and confidence in one’s abilities.

Methodologically, the researchers employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design, distributing validated questionnaires to professional accountants in Indonesia and analyzing the resulting data with Structural Equation Modeling using partial least squares, commonly abbreviated as PLS-SEM. This technique is well suited to studies that test theoretically derived relationships among latent psychological constructs, because it estimates measurement models and structural paths simultaneously while tolerating moderately complex models. The sample of 149 respondents, though modest by big-data standards, is appropriate for PLS-SEM, which performs reliably with samples of this size when construct reliability and validity criteria are met. The research protocol received ethical approval from the Health Research Ethics Committee of Hasanuddin University’s Faculty of Dentistry in December 2023, and all participants gave informed consent before taking part.

The headline finding is strikingly clean: proactive personality and goal orientation significantly predict career adaptability, and they do so both directly and indirectly through self-esteem. In other words, accountants who habitually scan the horizon for change and take initiative tend to be more adaptable, and part of that advantage flows through a stronger sense of self-worth. Goal-oriented professionals, those motivated to learn, master new skills, and pursue objectives, show the same pattern. The indirect pathway matters because it reveals a psychological mechanism: proactivity and goal pursuit do not merely generate more adaptive behavior; they also nourish the self-esteem that gives professionals the confidence to confront uncertainty in the first place.

Not every candidate strength earned its place in the final model. Occupational prestige, the external social status of the accounting profession, did not emerge as a significant predictor of career adaptability in the way the internal psychological dispositions did. This null result carries its own message for the era of Society 5.0. It suggests that adaptability is not something conferred from outside by a prestigious title or a respected professional designation. It is built from within, from the dispositions and motivational habits that individuals carry into their work. For a profession whose identity has historically been anchored in certification, regulation, and social standing, the finding is a quiet but pointed challenge: the credentials that once guaranteed relevance cannot substitute for the psychological resources that digital transformation now demands.

Why should this matter to anyone outside Indonesian accounting? Because the accounting profession functions as a kind of canary in the coal mine for knowledge work generally. Accountants were among the first professionals to see routine cognitive tasks, bookkeeping, reconciliation, basic compliance, automated at scale, and their experience previews what is coming for lawyers, engineers, analysts, and administrators worldwide. Society 5.0, a concept originating in Japan’s national science and technology policy, envisions a human-centered society that merges cyberspace and physical space through technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and the Internet of Things. In such a society, the professionals who thrive will not be those who compete with machines at machine tasks, but those who can continuously redefine their human contribution. Career adaptability is, in this sense, the psychological currency of the coming decades.

The theoretical contribution of the study lies in extending positive psychology into professional contexts undergoing digital disruption. Much of the existing literature on technological change in workplaces has emphasized stress, job insecurity, and technophobia, framing automation as a threat to be mitigated. By demonstrating that psychological strengths foster resilience, adaptability, and flourishing under precisely these conditions, the Indonesian team reframes the narrative. Disruption, on this reading, is not inherently corrosive; it is an opportunity structure, and the individuals best positioned to exploit it are those with proactive dispositions, learning-oriented motivation, and healthy self-esteem. This aligns with the broader career construction literature, in which adaptability resources are understood as psychological capacities that can be assessed, and crucially, cultivated.

The practical implications reach two audiences at once. For organizations, the findings argue for strength-based interventions rather than deficit-based training. Instead of merely teaching accountants to operate new software, firms could design development programs that reward initiative, set stretch goals, and provide experiences that build genuine self-esteem through mastery. Mentoring schemes, rotational assignments, and innovation projects all offer venues in which proactivity and goal orientation can be exercised and strengthened. For accounting education, the message is equally direct. Curricula built solely on technical standards risk producing graduates who are technically competent but psychologically fragile in the face of change. Embedding adaptability training, goal-setting practice, and self-efficacy development into professional education could produce a generation of accountants who treat each new wave of automation as a career opportunity rather than an existential threat.

The study also carries implications for lifelong adaptability as a policy concern. Indonesia, like many emerging economies, is investing heavily in digital infrastructure and aspires to position its workforce for the Society 5.0 economy. If adaptability depends on internal psychological strengths, then national upskilling programs that focus exclusively on digital literacy may miss half the equation. Complementing technical training with psychological capacity building, fostering proactivity, mastery motivation, and self-worth, could yield workforces that are not only skilled but genuinely resilient. The finding that self-esteem mediates the relationship between strengths and adaptability suggests a concrete lever: interventions that successfully raise authentic self-esteem among professionals may amplify the adaptive benefits of their existing proactivity and goal orientation.

Certain caveats frame the scope of these conclusions. The data are cross-sectional, drawn from a single national professional context, and self-reported, so causal claims and generalizations to other professions and cultures must be made cautiously. The authors themselves position the work as an extension of psychological theory into professional settings, and future longitudinal designs could track how adaptability develops as automation deepens. Yet even with those limits, the study’s core insight travels well. In an era when machines absorb the routine and humans are left with the ambiguous, the creative, and the relational, the decisive professional asset is not what you know at any given moment but how readily you can change what you know. For 149 Indonesian accountants at least, the capacity to change begins with a proactive spirit, a goal-directed mind, and the quiet confidence that comes from believing you are capable of meeting whatever comes next.

Subject of Research: Psychological strengths predicting career adaptability among professional accountants undergoing digital transformation

Article Title: Psychological strengths and career adaptability among Indonesian professional accountants in the era of Society 5.0

Article References: Pontoh, G. T., Mediaty, Ferdiansah, M. I., Baja, H. K., Mardiana, Y. R., Nurtanio, I., Jermias, J., Halim, L. V., Christian, F., Ibrahim, E. C., Upa, V. A., & Hamzah, H. (2026). Psychological strengths and career adaptability among Indonesian professional accountants in the era of Society 5.0. Discover Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44202-026-00902-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44202-026-00902-5

Keywords: career adaptability, psychological strengths, proactive personality, self-esteem, goal orientation, Society 5.0, accounting profession, positive psychology, digital transformation, PLS-SEM, Indonesia, occupational psychology