Three wishes of gifted and nongifted adolescents

Three wishes of 69 gifted and 66 nongifted adolescents within the United States were solicited in a group situation. The findings indicated that personal wishes were of the most concern for both gifted and nongifted adolescents, and that male adolescents in both groups tended to value material possessions more often than did female adolescents. A significant between-groups difference revealed that gifted adolescents expressed more altruistic and fewer goal wishes than their nongifted peers. These kinds of data are one more means of describing, for teachers and counselors, a general picture of students' psychological and social orientations.     

Speed of information processing in academically gifted youths

A group of bright-average 7th grade junior-high-school students was contrasted with a group of manifestly academically gifted students of comparable age who were taking college-level courses in mathematics and science. The groups differed significantly and markedly (showing an overall mean difference of 1.34 SD) on every one of the nine different reaction-time (RT) tasks measuring the speed with which persons perform various elementary cognitive processes. The results indicate that: (1) various RT measurements discriminate about as much between intellectually average and superior groups as past studies have found RT measurements to discriminate between average and subnormal groups: and (2) the academically gifted differ from their nongifted age-peers in more than just scholastic knowledge and advanced problem-solving skills—they differ fundamentally in speed of information processing on extremely simple cognitive tasks with average response latencies of between 0.3 and 1.5 sec.     

Analogical reasoning with novel concepts: Differential attention of intellectually gifted and nongifted children to relevant and irrelevant novel stimuli

Intellectually gifted and nongifted students in grades 6, 7, and 8 were given a modified verbal analogies test in which typical verbal analogy problems were preceded by novel or familiar statements about one of the analogy terms. The test required subjects to integrate this new information into an otherwise familiar problem-solving task. Both gifted and nongifted students gave significantly more attention to novel information than to familiar information. Gifted students gave significantly less attention to irrelevant novel information than did nongifted students, but did not differ from nongifted students in their attention to relevant novel information. Whereas intellectually gifted students gave significantly more time to relevant than to irrelevant novel information, non-gifted students allocated as much time to irrelevant novel information as they did to relevant novel information. Performance on this task was significantly correlated with teachers' ratings of intellectual ability for gifted, but not for nongifted students.     

Focussing on overexcitabilities: Studies with intellectually gifted and academically talented adults

The concept of “overexcitability” has recently become popular within the field of giftedness and talent research. Some authors argue that overexcitability questionnaires can be used to identify gifted/talented individuals. A sample of intellectually gifted adults (n = 96; mean age: 31.4; SD = 0.3) was compared to a sample of adults of average intelligence (n = 91; mean age: 31.4; SD = 0.4). Additionally, a sample of 123 high achievers (mean age = 30.5; SD = 0.3) was compared to 97 average achievers (mean age: 30.5; SD = 0.3). The “Overexcitability Questionnaire-Two” was used to assess emotional, imaginational, intellectual, psychomotor, and sensual overexcitability. The gifted adults scored statistically significantly higher on “intellectual overexcitability” (d = .42). High and average achievers differed statistically significantly in “intellectual overexcitability” (d = .56) and “sensual overexcitability” (d = .32). For the giftedness sample, the accuracy of group membership prediction (gifted/non-gifted) via discriminant analyses was 60.4%. For the performance sample, the accuracy was 63.4%. The observed differences in the overexcitabilities were small; the risk of misclassification is too big to attempt to identify gifted or high achieving adults solely on the basis of overexcitability scores.     

Sex role identity and self-esteem: A comparison of children and adolescents

While data from a sample of fourth-grade children indicate that both self-efficacy (masculinity) and relationality (femininity) are strongly associated with self-esteem for both girls and boys, results from a comparable sample of adolescents aged 14–18 and a subsample of the fourth graders when they were in twelfth grade indicate that only self-efficacy is generally associated with self-esteem. An association between relationality and self-esteem is found in adolescents only for a small, high-achieving, high-SES subset of androgynous males.We are grateful to the Center for the Study of Women in Society for support for the research reported in this article, to Jeanne McGee for providing access to part of the data used in this study, and to Robert O'Brien for statistical advice. Any opinions expressed in the article, however, are our own.     

Levels of emotional awareness scale among Iranian gifted and nongifted high school students

The purpose of this study was to investigate emotional awareness among Iranian high school students and to examine possible sex differences in emotional awareness. The participants were 388 gifted and nongifted students. They completed the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale-A. Analysis showed girls had significantly higher scores than boys in the total sample. The mean score on emotional awareness of gifted girls was significantly lower than that of nongifted girls. Potential implications of these findings are offered.     

The influence of training for the atomistic schema on the development of the density concept among gifted and nongifted children

The present study was conducted for two purposes. The first was to test the relations between the schema of atomism and the concept of density, and to examine the effects of Piagetian stage and M-capacity on these relations. This was accomplished by giving training for the schema of atomism to children at different stages and with varying M- capacities. The second purpose was to test the effects of age (9–10 versus 11–12 years) and IQ (gifted versus nongified children) as variables that would influence the outcome of training. A total of 120 children were tested. The findings were that the effects of the training and the IQ variables were significant while the effect of the age variable was not. When stage and M-capacity were covaried the effects of training and IQ remained significant. Implications for issues of developmental theory and educational practice are discussed.     

Depression, low self-esteem and mindfulness

Negative biases in processing information about the self have long been recognised as a central feature in the development and maintenance of clinical depression. In practice, however, it may not be easy to distinguish between patients whose negative thinking about the self is primarily an aspect of current mood state, and those for whom it represents a reflection of more enduring issues (low self-esteem). The paper speculates that, in both cases, metacognitive awareness (acceptance of the idea that thoughts, assumptions and beliefs are mental events and processes rather than reflections of objective truth) may be an important precursor to active engagement in therapy on the part of the patient, and considers what aspects of cognitive therapy might be used to promote it in clinical practice.     

Biofeedback and gifted children: an initial investigation

37 intellectually gifted students were given a 15-min. training session in EMG frontalis biofeedback to determine its effectiveness for reduction of stress. While differences across sex in biofeedback training were not found, these highly able students significantly reduced their levels of tension.     

Global self-esteem,perceived athletic competence,and physical activity in children: A longitudinal cohort study

ObjectivesThe Exercise and Self-Esteem Model is used as a theoretical framework to describe associations between global self-esteem and physical activity, mediated by perceived athletic competence. We know little about how these associations develop over time in elementary school children. We examined the change in, and associations between, global self-esteem, perceived athletic competence, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in children from kindergarten to grade 4. We also investigated if this change and these associations were different for boys and girls.DesignA prospective longitudinal cohort-sequential design that consisted of two cohorts of children.MethodChildren in cohort I were followed from kindergarten to grade 2, and children in cohort II were followed from grade 2 to grade 4. Global self-esteem and perceived athletic competence were measured with the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC) (n = 292; 148 boys), while MVPA was measured with proxy-reports for physical activity filled in by parents (n = 184; 88 boys).ResultsGlobal self-esteem, perceived athletic competence, and MVPA remained stable. Global self-esteem was the same in boys and girls, while boys reported higher levels of perceived athletic competence and were more physically active than girls. The change in global self-esteem was significantly associated with perceived athletic competence and MVPA in girls, but not in boys.ConclusionThere are few developmental changes in global self-esteem, perceived athletic competence, and MVPA from kindergarten to grade 4. The change in global self-esteem was associated with perceived athletic competence and MVPA in girls, but not in boys.     

Depression, self-esteem, and anger in emerging adulthood: seven-year trajectories

This study used a school-based community sample (N=920) to examine trajectories of depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and expressed anger in the critical years of emerging adulthood (ages 18-25). Using data from 5 waves, the authors discovered that multilevel models indicated that, on average, depressive symptoms and expressed anger declined, whereas self-esteem increased. Between-persons predictors of variability in trajectories included gender (gender gaps in depressive symptoms and self-esteem narrowed), parents' education, and conflict with parents (depressive symptoms and expressed anger improved fastest in participants with highly educated parents and in those with higher conflict). Across time, increases in social support and marriage were associated with increased psychological well-being, whereas longer periods of unemployment were connected with higher depression and lower self-esteem. Emerging adulthood is a time of improving psychological well-being, but individual trajectories depend on specific individual and family characteristics as well as role changes.     

The assessment of adolescent self-esteem: A comparison of methods1

The present series of studies explores the relationship between two conceptions of self-esteem: the self as experienced by the individual and the self as presented to others. Traditional measures of self-esteem are employed, and two new methods of assessing self-esteem in adolescents are introduced: an observational measure of self-esteem behavior (presented self) and a repeated self-report measure (experienced self). The presented self (observed behavior and peer ratings) and the experienced self (Rosenberg, Lerner, and a new method, paging devices) measures were consistent within themselves in assessing self-esteem. The presented self and the experienced self were not, however, significantly related to each other. We propose a moderator variable (“defensiveness”) to explain these discrepancies, and suggest that the observation of adolescent behavior provides a more accurate assessment of self-esteem than self-report measures.     

Daydreaming and curiosity: stability and change in gifted children and adolescents

Developmental differences in daydreaming and curiosity based on cross-sectional data have been reported, but longitudinal data are lacking. Patterns of longitudinal stability and change in two intellectual styles, daydreaming and curiosity, in gifted children and adolescents are described in this paper. Seventy-four intellectually gifted children attended a special program during two consecutive summers. Self-reports of their frequency of and attitudes toward daydreaming and two measures of their curiosity were obtained each year. The findings suggest a pattern of both change and stability in intellectual styles over time. Measures which tap the content of daydreams changed over time, but measures of process or ways of relating to the environment, such as curiosity and frequency of daydreaming, were fairly stable.     

A Response-cost procedure for reduction of impulsive behavior of academically handicapped children

To test the hypothesis that impulsive problem-solving behavior may be due to a child's low concern about response accuracy on the Matching Familiar Figures Test, a procedure was devised which involved punishment of incorrect responses by withdrawal of tokens given before each trial. This Response-cost procedure and the Standard procedure were given in counterbalanced sequence to two groups of 15 children with a mean chronological age of 13.9 and a mean IQ of 71 who were attending special classes because of academic difficulty. Subjects showed significantly longer latency to first response under the Response-cost procedure and also made significantly fewer errors under this procedure when it was the second one administered. When the Response-cost procedure was given first, the subjects tended to carry over their relatively low error rates to the subsequent trials under the standard procedure.Appreciation is expressed to Dorothy Arnold, Frank Scott, and the participating pupils from Mary Potter School in Oxford, North Carolina. Funds for computer processing were provided by the Center for Research on Exceptional Children, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The project was supported in part by U.S. Public Health Service, Maternal and Child Health Service Project No. 916 and by Grant HD-03110 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.     

Depression and attributions in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review

This article presents a meta-analytic review of the association between attributional styles and depressive symptoms in children and adolescents. In 28 studies involving 7500 subjects, the correlations were consistent with those predicted by the reformulated learned helplessness model of depression. For negative outcomes, attributions along the internal, stable, and global dimensions were associated positively with depression. Conversely, higher levels of depressive symptoms were related to more external, unstable, and specific attributions for positive events. Additionally, overall composite maladaptive attributional patterns for positive and negative events were correlated with higher levels of depressive symptoms in youth. Effect sizes for these associations ranged from moderate to large (Cohen, 1977). Findings from the significance tests of the combined results support the theory. A large number of unretrieved studies revealing null effects would be needed to invalidate these findings.     

Depression, hopelessness, and self-esteem: accounting for suicidality in adolescent psychiatric inpatients

The present study was designed to examine depression, hopelessness, and self-esteem as related to suicidal behavior in three groups of depressed adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Depressed adolescents who had never attempted suicide were compared to depressed adolescents who had attempted suicide once and to depressed adolescents who had attempted suicide on several different occasions. Results showed that suicidal adolescents experienced significantly greater depression and hopelessness than did the nonsuicidal adolescents. However, all three groups of depressed adolescents reported similar low levels of self-esteem. Measures of depression and hopelessness were useful in classifying the adolescents based on their suicidal behavior. Results suggest that the treatment of suicidal adolescents could benefit from strategies that focus on reducing feelings of depression and hopelessness.     

A comparison of never-hospitalized and previously hospitalized adolescents: self-esteem and locus of control.

Few empirical studies have been conducted to determine the influence of hospitalization on adolescents' psychosocial processes because younger children are regarded as more vulnerable. Therefore, the purpose of this self-report, retrospective study of 115 adolescents was to compare the self-esteem and locus of control of the never hospitalized to that of adolescents hospitalized during adolescence, prior to adolescence, and during and prior to adolescence. Although no significant differences were found, the findings raise questions about long-term effects of early experiences, especially among lower socioeconomic status youth. Also, general measures of self-esteem and locus of control may be unable to determine situation-specific effects.