Attitudes of Gifted Students
Table
Mean
Students
Scale
Intimacy-Mother
(range
Intimacy-Father
(range
Intimacy-Best
(range
Social
(range
Family
(range
Overall
(range
Self-Esteem
(range
Depression
(range
Risk-Taking
Danger-related
(range
Sports-related
(range
Drug
(range
[TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 3 OMITTED]
Greater intimacy with friends and less family responsibility-taking may reflect precocious social development. As children, these gifted students would likely have had more developed cognitive and verbal abilities, which might, in turn, have led to an earlier psychological separation from parents and increased intimacy with peers. As increased association with peers and separation from parents occurs, adolescents may experience greater pressure to take risks (Irwin & Millstein, 1986), as evidenced in this gifted sample's higher perceived risk- taking.
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.
REFERENCES
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Field, T., & Yando, R. (1991). Adolescents' Self-Perceptions Scales. Unpublished scales.
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Kelly, K.,
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