Roles of Smartphone Addiction and Academic Self-Concept in Predicting Achievement Motivation of Gifted Students

Psychologists and education experts are now interested in analyzing the psychological, cognitive, personal, and communicative characteristics of gifted students. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of smartphone addiction and academic self-concept in predicting the gifted students’ achievement motivation. The statistical population of this cross-sectional study included all gifted high school students of Tehran within the 2022–23 academic year. The stratified cluster sampling technique was employed to select 412 students as the research sample. The participants were asked to fill out the research measurement tools (i.e., Smartphone Addiction Scale, Academic Self-Concept Questionnaire, and Achievement Motivation Questionnaire). The Pearson correlation coefficient and the stepwise regression were used to analyze the data. According to the results, there was a negative significant relationship between smartphone addiction and achievement motivation, whereas there was a positive significant association between academic self-concept and achievement motivation (P<0.001). In fact, smartphone addiction and academic self-concept predicted a 23% variance in the achievement motivation of students. Moreover, smartphone addiction contributed further to the achievement motivation of gifted students. Based on the results, paying further attention to the effects of smartphone addiction and academic self-concept on the achievement motivation of gifted students is emphasized. The findings can be used as an appropriate model for designing and developing certain programs to reduce smartphone addiction, improve academic self-concept, and enhance the academic motivation of students.