Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the causal pattern of perceived competence on psychological capital mediated by the academic emotions of 10th grade male high school students in Tehran. Methodology: The research method was applied in terms of purpose, quantitative approach, cross-sectional in terms of data collection time and correlational in terms of research method. The statistical population of this study consisted of all tenth grade male students of the second year of high school in Tehran in the academic year 2019-20, from which 510 people were selected by multi-stage cluster random sampling. In this study, the tools of perceived competence (De Perna and Elliott, 2000), psychological capital (Lutans, 2011) and academic excitement (Pekrun, et al., 2005) were used, all of which had acceptable validity and reliability. SPSS-V23 and Amos-V8.8 software were used to analyze the data. Structural equation modeling was also used to answer the research hypotheses. Findings: The research findings showed that the model has a good fit. The results showed that perceived competence has an effect on psychological capital in students. Academic excitement affects the psychological capital of students. Perceived competence also affects psychological capital through the mediation of academic emotions. Conclusion: Therefore, it can be said that increasing psychological capital and perceived competence can improve the academic excitement in students.
