IMPOSTER SYNDROME AND GRIT AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS:

In today’s world in general population anxiety and self-doubt have increased due to academic and professional pressure, same scenario in India also which frequently leads to Imposter syndrome, a state of mind in which accomplishments are attributed to external forces, rather than one’s own skills or abilities. Recent years have seen a growing focus on this psychological phenomenon, especially concerning high achievers. Imposter syndrome was first discovered by Clance and Imes (1978) considered as psychological phenomenon found in a study of women in academic settings that includes faculty, graduate students and undergraduates. It refer to high achiever who despite gathering information from outer source consistently question their abilities and accomplishment (Siraj et., 2024) and often attribute their success to networking, luck, timing, lowering standard and charisma like external factors (Holden et al., n.d.). 45% of students was shown to suffer from Imposter syndrome according to studies (Agrawal et al., 2025). The passion for long-term goal often referred as grit is a psychological concept has drawn attention in the fields of education, organization and psychology. It is considered as an intangible feature demonstrating the relevance of determination and strength in pursuing their established goals notably those that demand for person to triumph over challenging circumstances, lends considerably to success over prolonged period of time (Duckworth et al., 2007). Traditionally where IQ has been thought of as predictor of success in school or workplace, these days grit has been seen increasing more significantly than IQ that propel students to accomplish their long-term objectives. Educators can play an essential role in determining students potential for success through putting and assessing grit skill into practice (Admin & Admin, 2024). Studing Imposter syndrome and Grit together can be complex as both have an influence on individual ability to work towards future goals in the face of uncertain circumstances or external barriers. Some of the national and international studies conducted in this regard shows a negative correlation to exist between imposter syndrome and grit (Charumitha A. et al., 2024), (Macias-Moriarity et al., 2023) and (Jones & Stacey A, 2023). College student’s overall development and academic achievement has been shown to have adverse effect of fear of failure, that is a motivating behavior that encourages preventing failure instead of achievement. This inhibits people from trying new things or taking risks, because they are afraid of failing (Bangar et al., 2024). One of the reason behind this could be that people may be anxious of failing at everything they do and strive to doubt their abilities which provides an evidence that imposter syndrome and fear of failure are comparable (Koshy et al., 2022). This is also supported by studies showing a significant correlation to exist between them (Nelson & Nelson, 2019) and (Noskeau et al., 2021). The willingness to pursue long term goals with commitment and dedication and commitment is referred as grit. People having such skill while facing failure and adversity are able to preserve their dedication and resolve for extended period of time. A negative correlation among these variables were indicated in research (Birr et al., 2023). Fear of failure can be seen to impact both imposter syndrome and grit from the available literature, hence used as mediator in this study.Very few studies have been conducted to explore the associated factors of imposter syndrome and mediating role of the fear of failure in Indian as well as across the boundaries, Although some studies done with regard to the imposter syndrome in western culture , but a limited amount of work done in Indian setup especially on university students to explore the interplay of all these study variables in a comprehensive framework, so this study aims to understand the impact of imposter syndrome on grit and the mediating role of fear of failure among imposter syndrome and grit that will be helpful i n fulfilling the theoretical knowledge regarding imposter syndrome as well as fostering the factors which promotes the positivism and self confidence in the students and planning of intervention plan for the upliftment of mental wellbeing and self confidence.