Modeling the relationships between perfectionism, achievement emotions and academic well-being among gifted high school students: Testing for gender invariance

Abstract

The present study examined the mediationg role of positive and negative achievement emotions on the relationship between perfectionism and academic well-being among boy and girl gifted adolescents. In this correlational study, 326 gifted students (161 boy and 165 girl) responded to the Multidimensional Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory (MPCI, Kobori, 2006), the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire- Revised (AEQ-R, Abdollahpour, 1394), the Schoolwork Engagement Inventory (SEI, Salmela-Aro & Upadaya, 2012) and the School Burnout Inventory (SBI, Salmela-Aro, Kiuru, Leskinen & Nurmi, 2009). Results indicated that for total sampel and for boy and girl gifted adolescents, the partially mediated model of positive and negative achievement emotions on the relationship between perfectionism and academic well-being had good fit to data. The results of the group specificity of structural relations showed that the relationship between perfectionism, achievement emotions, academic well-being were equivalent for both groups. All of the regression weights in the global model and for each of the two groups (boy and girl gifted adolescents) were statistically significant. These results consistent with contemporary models of giftedness show that noncognitive concepts such as social/emotional abilities have critical role in prediction of academic functioning of girl and boy gifted high school students.

Keywords

• sex differences
• perfectionism
• achievement emotions
• academic well-being
• moderated mediation model