The structure and function of academic self‐concept in gifted and general education students

Abstract

Using structural equation modeling techniques, this exploratory study investigated the differences in the factor structure of academic self‐perceptions in a sample of gifted students and within a general population of students. The factor structure exhibited partial measurement invariance, suggesting that two of the items on the factor work differently in the gifted sample than in the sample from the general population. The gifted sample demonstrated higher academic self‐perceptions than the general school sample and higher self‐reported GPAs than the general school sample. However, the relationship between academic self‐perceptions and self‐reported GPA was invariant across groups. For both gifted students and the general population of high school students, GPA and academic self‐perceptions were moderately and positively related. Therefore, although there are large mean differences between gifted students and the general population of students on the academic self‐perceptions scale, the structure of the relationship between academic self‐perceptions and GPA was similar.