The Structure and Function of Academic Self-Concept in Gifted and General Education Students

Using structural equation modeling tech-niques, this exploratory study investigated the differences in the factor structure of academic self-perceptions in a sample of gifted stu-dents and within a general population of stu-dents. 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-percep-tions 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 pop-ulation 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. D. Betsy McCoach is completing her Ph.D. in educational psychology with concentra-tions in gifted education, school psychology, and quantitative research methodology at the University of Connecticut's Neag School of Education. Previously, she was a teacher of the gifted and a secondary gifted specialist in Pennsylvania. She was a recipient of a Spencer Doctoral Fellowship from the Ameri-can Educational Research Association for the 2001-2002 academic year. In addition, she received an AERA Dissertation Research Grant for the 2002-2003 academic year. Ms. McCoach's areas of research interest include the underachievement of gifted students, instrument design and analysis, quantitative research methodology, and issues related to the identification and assessment of high abil-ity students. Del Siegle is an assistant professor of edu-cational psychology in the Neag School o