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Insight into causal mechanisms underlying underachievement among gifted students has remained elusive. Based on the premise of self-worth theory and implicit beliefs about intelligence, it was hypothesized that entity-focused messages about giftedness would lead to maladaptive academic coping behaviors when gifted status was threatened. Therefore, the current research examined the interactive effect of messages about giftedness as fixed or malleable and success or failure experiences on both behavioral and claimed self-handicapping among a sample of 108 undergraduates attending an elite university. Following a failure experience, participants who had heard an entity message about giftedness engaged in behavioral self-handicapping to a greater degree than those who heard an incremental message about giftedness. Female participants who received an entity message engaged in more claimed self-handicapping after experiencing failure and less claimed self-handicapping after experiencing success. There were no differences in claimed self-handicapping after success and failure for female participants who received an incremental message. This pattern is in line with an impression management strategy. In contrast, implicit messages did not influence male participants' claimed self-handicapping. Implications for motivational theory and educational practice are discussed.

Growing attention is being paid to individuals' implicit beliefs about the nature of intelligence. However, implicit beliefs about giftedness are currently underexamined. In the current study, we examined academically gifted adolescents' implicit beliefs about both intelligence and giftedness. Overall, participants' implicit beliefs about giftedness and intelligence were significantly positively correlated while also having statistically significant mean differences, suggesting that they perceived the nature of the two constructs differently. Specifically, many students viewed intelligence as malleable (incremental view) and giftedness as fixed (entity view), whereas very few students viewed giftedness as malleable and intelligence as fixed; however, heterogeneity was observed. The beliefs identified in the current study provide important insight into the domain-specific nature of implicit beliefs of gifted students and suggest that caution be used against using terms like giftedness and intelligence interchangeably.

Two studies were conducted with distinct samples to investigate how motivational beliefs cohere and function together (i.e., motivational profiles) and predict academic adjustment. Integrating across motivational theories, participants (NStudy 1 = 160 upper elementary students; NStudy 2 = 325 college students) reported on multiple types of motivation (achievement goals, task value, perceived competence) for schooling more generally (Study 1) and in science (Study 2). Three profiles characterized by Moderate-High All, Intrinsic and Confident, and Average All motivation were identified in both studies. Profiles characterized by Very High All motivation (Study 1) and Moderate Intrinsic and Confident (Study 2) were also present. Across studies, the Moderate-High All and Intrinsic and Confident profiles were associated with the highest academic engagement and achievement. Findings highlight the benefit of integrating across motivational theories when creating motivational profiles, provide initial evidence regarding similarities and differences in integrative motivational profiles across distinct samples, and identify which motivational combinations are associated with beneficial academic outcomes in two educational contexts.

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The current study reports on the efficacy of a multi-faceted motivationally designed undergraduate enrichment summer program for supporting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) persistence. Structural equation modeling was used to compare summer program participants ( = 186), who participated in the program between their first and second years in college, to a propensity score matched comparison sample ( = 401). Participation in the summer program positively predicted science motivation (self-efficacy, task value), assessed eight months after the end of the program (second year in college). The summer enrichment program was also beneficial for science persistence variables, as evidenced by significant direct and indirect effects of the program on science course completion during students' third year of college and students' intentions to pursue a science research career assessed during the third year of college. In general, the program was equally beneficial for all participants, but ancillary analyses indicated added benefits with respect to task value for students with relatively lower prior science achievement during the first year of college and with respect to subsequent science course taking for males. Implications for developing effective interventions to reduce the flow of individuals out of STEM fields and for translating motivational theory into practice are discussed.

Transgender people have higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than the general population. This risk can be partially understood by conceptualizing day-to-day bias-related stressors and nonaffirmation as potentially traumatic, but there is currently limited empirical evidence to support such a framework. This study aimed to explore this framework by testing the hypothesis that exposure to antitransgender bias and non-affirmation are related to PTSD symptom severity, even after controlling for exposure to traditionally defined potentially traumatic events. Drawing upon shame-based models of PTSD, this study also tested the hypothesis that internalized transphobia partially mediates the relationships between both bias and non-affirmation and PTSD symptom severity. Cross-sectional data were collected online from 575 individuals who identified as having a gender different from their sex assigned at birth. Data were analyzed utilizing structural equation modeling. As hypothesized, participants with greater exposure to anti-transgender bias and higher levels of non-affirmation experiences had increased PTSD symptom severity, even after controlling for exposure to other trauma. These relationships were partially explained by internalized transphobia. These findings document meaningful relationships between anti-transgender bias, non-affirmation, internalized transphobia, and posttraumatic stress. They provide initial support for conceptualizing anti-transgender bias and non-affirmation experiences as potentially traumatic themselves and/or as trauma response triggers and highlight a potential role of internalized transphobia in PTSD symptoms. Clinical implications for working with trans populations are discussed. Public Significance StatementThis study found that anti-transgender bias, non-affirmation of gender, and internalized transphobia were related to PTSD symptom severity. When psychologists or the general public make efforts to understand trans people's increased rates of PTSD symptoms and diagnoses-or participate in efforts to improve mental health in the trans community-they should attend to anti-transgender bias, non-affirmation, and internalized transphobia.