22–25 Jul 2025
EAM2025
Atlantic/Canary timezone

Multipotentiality in university students and its relationship with gender, high abilities and entrance score

23 Jul 2025, 09:30
15m
Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication. (The Pyramid)/9 - Room (Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication. (The Pyramid))

Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication. (The Pyramid)/9 - Room

Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication. (The Pyramid)

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Speakers

Elena Rodríguez Naveiras (Universidad de La Laguna) Juan Francisco Flores Bravo (University Center for Health Sciences, University of Guadalajara) Maria Dolores Valadez Sierra África Borges del Rosal (Universidad de La Laguna)

Description

Introduction Multipotentiality, defined as the ability to excel in diverse areas of interest (Cordero, 2019), has been explored through individual differences and educational factors that favor its development. Previous studies highlight that factors such as gender and high abilities play crucial roles in how individuals explore and manage multiple talents (Kerr Huffman, 2018). For example, Jung (2019) notes that students with high abilities often have a wide variety of interests and abilities, which can lead them to face the challenge of having numerous options, but having difficulty choosing just one. Objective To analyze how multipotentiality in college students is associated with variables such as gender, high ability, and college entrance score. Method MMR was used with a transforming concurrent design. The sample consisted of 1,446 (997 women) university students from various degrees in the area of Health Sciences, who were given a questionnaire that included, among others, an open- ended question on the areas or disciplines in which they perceive themselves to have a high level of competence. Quantitative analysis was performed by means of Student39;s t test using SPSS v.27, while the open-ended responses were classified using the ALCESTE program. Results The qualitative analyses of the verbalizations refer to two classes “Personalization of competencies”(47.57%), which reveals that multipotentiality is significantly related to being male, having high abilities, and obtaining a high score in the university entrance exam, especially in careers related to Sports and Nutrition. In contrast, the class “General competencies”(52.43%) reflects that women without high abilities and with average entrance scores tend to identify less with multipotentiality, especially in the Psychology career. At the quantitative level, no significant differences were observed with respect to gender, intelligence and university entrance score. Conclusions The findings suggest that high ability and entry score are significant predictors of multipotentiality in college students. These results may guide future educational policies and support programs to foster the development of multiple competencies in diverse student populations.

Primary authors

Elena Rodríguez Naveiras (Universidad de La Laguna) Juan Francisco Flores Bravo (University Center for Health Sciences, University of Guadalajara) Maria Dolores Valadez Sierra África Borges del Rosal (Universidad de La Laguna)

Presentation materials