ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Learning Innovations
This article is part of the Research TopicGenerative Artificial Intelligence in Gifted EducationView all articles
Giftedness and academic motivation in GenAI contexts: The moderating and mediating role of gender and AI anxiety
Provisionally accepted
Amr Mahmoud Mohamed1
Abdul Qader Emran Emran2
Abbas Hussein Abdelrady3*
Abdul Aziz Mohamed Ali El Deen4- 1North Private College of Nursing, Arar, Saudi Arabia
- 2Gulf University, Sanad, Bahrain
- 3Qassim University, Buraidah, Saudi Arabia
- 4Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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This study investigated the relationships among gifted behavior, Generative AI (GenAI) anxiety, and learning motivation among gifted EFL university students in Saudi Arabia, with an additional focus on the mediating role of GenAI anxiety and the moderating effect of gender. Using a quantitative correlational design, data were collected from 304 purposively selected undergraduates classified as gifted based on institutional records and psychometric confirmation using Gifted Rating Scales. The participants answered the verified instruments of gifted behavior, GenAI anxiety, and academic motivation. Analysis of structural equation modeling showed that gifted behavior was associated with lower GenAI anxiety and higher motivation, and that GenAI anxiety had a significant negative association with motivation. The mediation analysis indicated that the relationship between gifted behavior and motivation was partially mediated by GenAI anxiety. Gender was a significant moderator of the relationships between gifted behavior and motivation, as well as between GenAI anxiety and motivation, with both associations being stronger among females. The findings contribute to the growing body of research on the psychological impact of AI implementation in EFL learning, suggesting that gifted learners' responses to GenAI technologies are characterized by distinct effective and motivational patterns. The research provides theoretical insights into giftedness and technology-related emotions, providing pedagogical implications for creating AI-based EFL learning environments that are sensitive to learners' cognitive and affective profiles.
Keywords: academic motivation, EFL, GenAI anxiety, gender differences, generative AI (GenAI), Giftedness
Received: 07 Dec 2025; Accepted: 21 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Mohamed, Emran, Abdelrady and Ali El Deen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Abbas Hussein Abdelrady
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