<b>Exploring the Impact of Adaptive Perfectionism on Academic Engagement</b>

Academic engagement is a central indicator of students’ learning adaptation and developmental potential, yet the psychological mechanisms linking adaptive individual characteristics to engagement remain insufficiently clarified. This study examines whether adaptive perfectionism is associated with academic engagement through the sequential roles of self-control and meaning in life, introducing a resource– and motivation-based explanatory perspective to the field. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was administered to 1,083 university students, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and bias-corrected bootstrap procedures. The results showed that adaptive perfectionism was positively associated with academic engagement. Self-control and meaning in life each mediated this association, and a significant sequential mediating pathway was identified. These findings indicate that adaptive perfectionism is linked to higher academic engagement partly through enhanced self-regulatory capacity and stronger meaning-based motivational experiences. The study contributes to existing theory by integrating Conservation of Resources Theory and Self-Determination Theory to explain how adaptive individual factors are associated with sustained academic engagement.