Kulagina, I.Yu.

Background. Children of primary school age with a high level of intellectual development (gifted) develop their intellectual creative potential primarily in educational activities. Therefore, it is fundamentally important to establish intrinsic motivation within the framework of the system of academic motives — cognition and self-development, but there is lack of information about the academic motivation of modern younger schoolchildren in the psychological literature devoted to the problems of giftedness and the factors of its development.

Objective. The goal is to determine the specifics of the academic motivation of children with a high level of intellectual development, studying at a school with an enriched curriculum.

Study Participants. 155 students, 3–4 graders, participated in the study: 75 children (35 boys, 40 girls, average age 8.7 years) with a high level of intellectual development (measured using Raven’s SPM in terms of IQ, the average IQ score is ≥130, the range is 115–150); 80 children (40 boys, 40 girls, average age 8.8 years) with normative intellectual development.

Methods. The questionnaire of academic motivation SRQ-A by T.O. Gordeeva, O.A. Sychev, M.F. Lynch, the methodology for assessing social and emotional skills by E.A. Orel and A.A. Kulikova, the questionnaire of life satisfaction of schoolchildren by T.N. Kanonir, I.L. Uglanova, D.A. Federyakina were used. The Mann-Whitney U criteria, Spearman correlation coefficient p, and Fisher’s Z-transformation were applied.

Results. The differences in the motivational profiles of younger schoolchildren with different levels of intellectual development are shown. At a high level of intellectual development, self-development motivation is more expressed; external and related types of motivation are less pronounced. Reverse connection is revealed between external motivation and goal achievement skills as well as with school satisfaction.

Conclusions. In the second phase of primary school age, external motivation weakens in children with a high level of intellectual development, studying according to an enriched programme. Internal academic motivation develops intensively, which plays a leading role in ensuring subjective well-being and the formation of goal achievement skills. The main direction of further research is to compare the motivational indicators of younger schoolchildren with a high level of intellectual development, studying in different conditions and at different levels of schooling.