Gifted Underachievers and Mindset

Posted by Carla Marie Boulianne Aug 12, 2008

When my daughter went for her gifted assessment, the professional indicated that one of the strongest factors in underachievement was mindset. She recommended Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success as essential reading for parents raising a gifted child.

Dweck discusses gifted underachievement arising from a fixed mindset. For gifted kids, this can involve perfectionism combined with a mistaken belief that to be smart all learning must come easily. These two aspects can form a fatal combination leading to underachievement. Gifted underachievers tell themselves that they are failing because they never tried. They secretly fear failure, or imperfection, upon genuine effort.

Parent praise holds a critical role in the formation of fixed versus growth mindsets. If you want to understand your child’s underachievement, you should first consider how your praise could undermine motivation and effort by influencing your gifted child’s self-concept.

Linda Emerick found that gifted children overcoming underachievement all experienced critical changes in self-concept. There are usually many factors contributing to any particular gifted student’s underachievement. It should be no surprise that Erickson found six elements essential to improved performance: parents, student interests, self-concept, personal goals, classes, and teachers all play a role in reversing underachievement.

We took our daughter to a professional. Her gifted assessment supported grade acceleration. After a brief blip of feigning math ignorance to fit in with her new peer group, the underachievement disappeared; so did the immature behaviors and acting out. The material was worth her attention, she was no longer bored, and she had shed her fixed mindset. I hope that this is the last time underachievement raises its ugly head. Wishful thinking, I’m sure.