Feelings and attitudes of gifted students

Adolescence, Summer, 1998 by Tiffany Field, Jeff Harding, Regina Yando, Ketty Gonzalez, David Lasko, Debra Bendell, Carol Marks

Relative to their nongifted peers, the gifted students felt they had average or above average self-esteem. Their superior academic self-image (and their teachers' agreement on this factor) would be expected. Surprisingly, however, they also reported having the same or better social skills. This finding is contrary to reports of less social competence in gifted students (Kerr et al., 1988; Ross & Parker, 1980). Gifted students in the present study may simply have been more accepted (even valued) by their peers than were those in earlier studies. The gifted students' responses on the Unhappy with Giftedness subscale were not negative even though their teachers thought they were less happy than they themselves indicated. Future research should examine this question, as well as the possibility that social attitudes among gifted students and their peers are changing.

The authors would like to thank the students and teachers who participated in this study. This research was supported by an NIMH Research Scientist Award (#MH00331) and an NIMH Research Grant (#MI-I40779) to Tiffany Field.

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