Analytical Study of Perfectionism, Academic Self-Handicapping, and Achievement Motivation Among Gifted Secondary Students in Oyo State

Gifted students represent a psychologically distinctive population whose academic functioning is paradoxically undermined by perfectionism-driven self-handicapping, a self-protective strategy through which high-achieving students create obstacles to their own performance to protect self-esteem from failure attribution. This study examines the relationships among perfectionism, academic self-handicapping, and achievement motivation in gifted secondary school students in Oyo State, South West Nigeria. A cross-sectional analytical design is applied to 200 identified gifted students aged 12 to 17 years from three designated gifted education schools in Ibadan and Ogbomoso. The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Academic Self-Handicapping Scale, and the Achievement Motivation Scale are administered alongside a questionnaire capturing academic performance history and gifted programme duration. Structural equation modelling in AMOS tests the proposed perfectionism-self-handicapping-motivation pathway. Literature from South West Nigerian gifted education psychology identifies concern over mistakes and doubts about actions as the perfectionism dimensions most strongly linked to self-handicapping, with intrinsic achievement motivation attenuating this pathway. Hewitt and Flett's Multidimensional Perfectionism Model and Self-Determination Theory by Deci and Ryan provide the theoretical framework. This study fills an empirical gap in the gifted education psychology literature in Nigeria. Findings will guide the Oyo State gifted education programme in developing psychological support for high-achieving students. Keywords: perfectionism, self-handicapping, achievement motivation, gifted students, Oyo State.