Perceived social support and resilient mindset among Chinese undergraduates: the chain mediating roles of self-efficacy and meaning in life

Objective Grounded in Second Wave Positive Psychology (PP2.0), this study conceptualizes resilient mindset as a positive cognitive schema associated with the internalization of external relational and existential resources, rather than merely a static adaptive outcome. It examines how perceived social support is associated with resilient mindset among undergraduates through a sequential mechanism involving self-efficacy and meaning in life, thereby examining the proposed pathway from social resources to resilient cognition. Methods A cross-sectional design was employed with 764 undergraduates recruited from four universities in China. Standardized instruments measuring perceived social support, self-efficacy, meaning in life, and resilient mindset were administered. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and Hayes’ PROCESS macro (Model 6). A bias-corrected bootstrap procedure with 5,000 resamples was used to test the sequential mediation model representing a “resource—agency—existential integration—schema formation” pathway. Results Perceived social support significantly predicted resilient mindset. Both self-efficacy and meaning in life independently mediated this relationship. More importantly, a significant sequential mediation was identified, wherein self-efficacy was associated with meaning in life, which in turn was associated with resilient mindset. When mediators were included, the direct effect of perceived social support on resilient mindset became non-significant, indicating that the association is largely accounted for by the indirect pathways through self-efficacy and meaning in life. Conclusion The findings advance PP2.0 by positioning resilience not as an outcome of adaptation, but as a higher-order cognitive associated with the integration of social and existential resources. The supported sequential pathway (“perceived social support → self-efficacy → meaning in life → resilient mindset”) specifies a theoretically integrated mechanism in which agency-based confidence is associated with existential meaning-making, jointly culminating in resilient cognition. This study shifts resilience research from outcome description to generative explanation, offering a structural model of resilient cognition under conditions of social uncertainty.