An exploration of the self-concept of gifted students in the United Arab Emirates

Self-concept is a person’s evaluation of their personality when performing a given task. It can provide crucial insight into gifted students’ self-assessments of their social and academic well-being. Research on gifted students’ self-concept in non-Western contexts is limited; in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), no attempt has been made thus far in this regard. We applied social comparison theory to assess the self-concept of 150 gifted students who completed the revised Self-Perception Profile for Children scale. Structural equation modeling was used for the confirmatory factor, path, and moderation analyses. We noted a wide variation in the correlation between the tenets of self-concept. Our study provides theoretical support for the widely used Self-Perception Profile for Children scale in an Emirati context. Our findings highlight the importance of targeting multiple areas when developing programs for gifted children in the UAE.