Structural modeling of predicting adolescents’ academic buoyancy, psychological playfulness and life orientation mediated by aesthetic intelligence in teenagers

The purpose of this study was to explain the mediating role of aesthetic intelligence in the relation of self-handicapping on academic buoyancy, psychological playfulness and life orientation in teenagers. The population included all students of high schools in Poldokhtar city in 2017-2018 amounting to 3990 people. According to Krejcie and Morgan''s table, 350 participants were selected as the sample by multi-stage sampling. The following instruments were used to collect the data: Jones and Rudolph self-handicapping, Dehghanizadeh et al.’s academic buoyancy, Rashid et al.’s aesthetic intelligence, Shearer and Carver’s life orientation and Shen, Chick and Zinn’s psychological playfulness. The findings showed that the conceptual model of research was confirmed and self-handicapping had a significant and negative effect on aesthetic intelligence, academic buoyancy, psychological playfulness and life orientation. More importantly, aesthetic intelligence had a significant and positive effect on academic buoyancy and psychological playfulness, although, aesthetic intelligence did not have a significant effect on the participants’ life orientation. As result, in schools, self-handicapping has harmful effects on the psychological characteristics and educational outcomes of teenagers; nevertheless, relying on aesthetic intelligence can help reduce the adverse effects of this unfavorable trait and provide a good basis for the emergence of positive psychological and educational outcomes.