The investigation of the relationship between career and talent development self-efficacy, self-esteem, and perfectionism in gifted students

The study aimed to investigate the difference in career development self-efficacy in terms of gender and making occupational decision in gifted students. The other aim was to examine the predictive role of positive-negative perfectionism and self-esteem on talent development, work habits and values, and career exploration for gifted students. The sample of the study consisted of 275 participants (152 girls and 122 boys) from BİLSEMs in Istanbul. Demographic Information Form, Career and Talent Development Self-Efficacy Scale (CTDSES), Positive-Negative Perfectionism Scale (PNPS), and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSS) were used as data collection tools in the study. Multiple Variance Analysis (MANOVA) was used to test whether the subscale scores of the CTDSES, namely talent development, work habits and values, and career exploration differ according to gender and making occupational decision. The findings of the study showed that there was a statistically significant difference only between work habits and value subscales of CTDSES in terms of gender. Moreover, career exploration subscale of CTDSES demonstrated a significant difference considering occupational decision. In addition, whether positive-negative perfectionism and self-esteem predict career and talent development self-efficacy was tested with Multivariate Linear Regression analysis. It was found that positive perfectionism and self-esteem significantly predicted career and talent development self-efficacy. On the other hand, no significant results were found for negative perfectionism.