Cognitive-behavioral mechanisms underlying impostor phenomenon and depressive symptoms: A cross-cultural analysis

Abstract

<p>Despite the expansion of research on impostor phenomenon (IP), few relevant studies have focused on Asian populations. To address this research gap, the present study investigated variations in IP between samples from Asian and Western countries, namely Hong Kong and the U.K. The study also aimed to identify potential mediators between IP and depressive symptoms, an understudied area despite the well-established association between these constructs. A three-wave longitudinal design was employed to investigate the potential influence of three novel mediators—rumination, mistake rumination, and self-effacement—on the association between IP and depressive symptoms. The Hong Kong and U.K. samples comprised 224 (55 % women) and 231 (51 % women) high-achieving university students, respectively. As predicted, the Hong Kong participants reported significantly higher levels of IP than their U.K. counterparts. However, all three mediators partially explained the association between IP and depressive symptoms for both samples, reflecting the universality of the hypothesized mechanisms. These intricate findings indicate that high-achieving university students from Hong Kong are more likely to exhibit elevated levels of IP compared to those from the U.K., but the underlying mechanisms relating IP to depressive symptoms tend to be largely similar across the samples.</p>