A Look Beyond Aptitude: The Relationship Between Personality Traits, Autonomous Motivation, and Academic Achievement in Gifted Students

ABSTRACT

Understanding the factors that influence achievement among gifted students has been a longstanding interest of researchers in the field of gifted education. To that end, this study investigated the individual difference antecedents of achievement as a means to identify dispositions and motivational processes that inform the design of interventions to improve student performance. More specifically, we report the results of a mediation analysis in which the association between personality traits and academic achievement is explained by autonomous motivation in a sample of gifted students (N = 161). All Big Five personality traits were found to be significant predictors of achievement measured by ACT or ACT Explore scores. Agreeableness, neuroticism, and extraversion had negative direct associations with achievement. The positive associations of conscientiousness and openness with achievement were partially mediated by autonomous motivation. Results are discussed in terms of adapting educational practices to the specific personality traits and motivational orientations of gifted students.

KEYWORDS:

• academic achievement
• autonomous motivation
• Big Five
• gifted education
• gifted students
• personality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sakhavat Mammadov

Sakhavat Mammadov, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Dewar College of Education and Human Services at Valdosta State University (VSU). Dr. Mammadov received his PhD from William & Mary in Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership with an emphasis in Gifted Education. He worked as a postdoctoral research associate for the University of Washington’s (UW) Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars prior to his appointment at VSU. His primary research interest is to examine and explore issues dealing with the social and emotional needs of children with gifts and talents. Email: [email protected]

Tracy L. Cross

Tracy L. Cross, PhD, is the Jody and Layton Smith Professor of Psychology and Gifted Education and the executive director of the Center for Gifted Education and the Institute for Research on the Suicide of Gifted Students at William & Mary. He is the past editor of numerous journals, including Gifted Child Quarterly, Roeper Review, and Journal for the Education of the Gifted. He has been president of the National Association for Gifted Children and The Association for the Gifted. Dr. Cross has received many awards for his research and service in the field of gifted education, including the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award, MENSA Education and Research Foundation, and the 2020 Palmarium Award. Email: [email protected]

Paula Olszewski-Kubilius

Paula Olszewski-Kubilius is director of the Center for Talent Development and professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She writes extensively on issues of talent development. She served as editor of Gifted Child Quarterly and is currently a trustee of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and past-president of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children. She is past president of NAGC and received the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2009. Email: [email protected]