Perfectionism, mattering, stress, and self-regulation of home learning of UK gifted and talented students during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of schools in the UK and students had to study at home with limited access to the support they would have normally received. We designed this study to assess the experience of gifted and talented (GAT) students during this period and to identify factors related to their stress and self-regulation of learning. The factors we focused on were perfectionism and feelings of mattering. Three-hundred and eleven GAT students completed an online questionnaire when schools were closed and they were studying at home. Analyses revealed that striving for perfection was related to better effort regulation and better time and environment management. However, negative reactions to imperfection and feeling like they did not matter (anti-mattering) were related to higher academic stress, as well as worse effort regulation and worse time and environment management. The findings suggest aspects of both perfectionism and mattering may be important for GAT students’ ability to study effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic.