The Important Role of Optimism in a Motivational Investigation of the Education of Gifted Adolescents

Abstract

Intellectually gifted 7th-grade students were surveyed approximately halfway through their 1st year of high school in order to investigate relationships between motivational and affective variables, commitment to schoolwork, and satisfaction with school. The results of the confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling suggest that relationships of mediating variables such as optimism, strain on coping resources, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation with satisfaction with school and commitment to schoolwork should be considered in the context of the motivational needs of gifted students.