Emotional Well Being of Gifted & Talented Students: Home

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Considers a study of adolescent girls enrolled in a residential early college entrance program that investigated whether socioemotional adjustment could be predicted by prior personality and family characteristics. Jackson Personality Inventory;Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents; Family Environment Scale; Four outcome adjustment measures; Method, results, and discussion. INSET: Putting the research to use..

Students attending a state-supported residential academy for academically gifted adolescents (N = 139) completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory for Adolescents (MMPI-A; Butcher et al., 1992) upon entrance to document their psychological characteristics. The same students completed a postadministration of the MMPI-A at the end of their 2nd year at the school. Results indicated that the gifted students were quite similar to the normative group of adolescents on the MMPI-A. While several statistically significant changes were observed over time, the effect-size calculations accounted for only a modest percentage of the variance in all cases. Scores on the 2nd administration of the MMPI-A declined among the majority of students who manifested elevated scores on the initial administration.

Each year, academically gifted students leave home to live in a special school, one of 11 state‐supported residential high schools for students gifted or talented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) academic domains. These schools attempt to take full advantage of the 24-hour day by engaging students in a rigorous learning process that continues into the evenings and on weekends. The residential schooling environment, with all its scholastic challenges, serves as the backdrop against which the psychosocial development of gifted students progresses. This article outlines and addresses salient issues and factors pertinent to guiding the gifted students' psychosocial development while living in a residential high school, including identity formation, the importance of Bronfenbrenner's ecological model for conceptualizing the school's impact on adolescent development, and the significance of social learning and the coping strategies it encourages. The role and nature of friendships the students develop with each other and with adult faculty and staff will also be described.

This study provides descriptive information about the psychological types of a sample of 931 gifted adolescents who attended a public residential academy. Psychological types are assessed with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI reports on four pairs of personality types: Extraversion/Introversion (E/I), Sensing/Intuition (S/N), Thinking/Feeling (T/F), and Judging/Perceiving (J/P). Overall, the most common types reported by this sample were INTJ, INTP, INFP, ENFP, and ENTP. Comparisons between gifted and norming samples are reported. Gender differences for the gifted sample were found on E/I, with males orienting toward I and females orienting toward E. Gender-specific comparisons between gifted and norming samples reveal that gifted females had a greater tendency toward I and T, and gifted males had a greater tendency for I. Overall, both genders in the gifted sample tended to be NP types. Putting the Research to Use: The findings of the present study regarding psychological type and gifted students have several important implications for educators. A similarity between gifted students’ and teachers’ personality types enables teachers to provide the type of instruction that appears to fit with gifted students’ learning styles: theory based, logical analysis, abstract concepts, problem solving, and open discussion. Likewise, a mismatch of type between gifted students and their teachers may lead to difficulties in the classroom as gifted students with Intuition and Perceiving preferences may feel misunderstood and unchallenged by their teachers who are less likely to have this type combination. To address this concern, administrators may want to consider offering professional development sessions that give an overview of the four broad dimensions of personality and their indication of learning style preference. Such sessions may help teachers learn how to include a variety of instructional strategies and assessment options that would appeal to a wide range of students, including those with NP preferences. In addition, because students with a Perceiving preference may have a tendency toward disorganization and procrastination, Sak recommended that teachers adopt instructional models that include flexible classroom structure. With their emphasis on independence and self-paced learning, such instructional models may help students with a Perceiving preference develop into self-regulated learners. By factoring psychological type into the equation of curriculum planning, as this study suggests, educators are able to design teaching methods that will provide an optimal fit for gifted learners

Presents a study which examined students in one entering class at a Midwestern residential school for gifted and talented adolescents in order to determine the psychological makeup of academically gifted students who are admitted to and leave home to attend a residential school. Characteristics of the clusters; Implications of the findings for residential schools; Review of related literature.

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We investigated the role of perceived social support in facilitating adjustment to a residential high school for the gifted in science and math. The relation between social support and adjustment appeared to depend on the sex of the student and the source of support, and the specific type of adjustment examined. Successful overall adjustment to the school environment was related to perceived support from family, whereas psychological adjustment showed a clear relation to perceived support in general. Perceived support from peers related to psychological adjustment only for male adolescents. Female adolescents appeared to seek other sources of support when they perceived support from a particular source to be low. Thus, adjustment problems for female adolescents appeared to result only when they were unable to locate other sources.

Examines the psychological types of students admitted to a public, residential, magnet high school for academically talented and gifted juniors and seniors, as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Comparison of students to two groups of gifted adolescents and two groups of traditional high school students; Findings of the comparison; Implications of findings to the education of the magnet school students and other gifted students.

Many gifted students are served through special programming. However, little large-scale information is available regarding the incidence of psychological disorders, medication requirements, and counseling histories in that population. This type of information is important to ensuring the well-being of gifted students, particularly those served through residential programming. This study reports the results of a review of medical information forms for over 1,900 gifted 8th-11th graders participating in a 3-week residential academic programs. Rates of diagnosed psychological disorders, medication prescriptions, and counseling needs are presented. In general, this sample reported low rates of psychological disorders, medication use, and counseling. Results are discussed in terms of program development and program policy issues.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether academically talented adolescents attending a residential science high school in Korea had different levels of psychological well-being or school life satisfaction than their high-ability peers in regular high schools. The participating high-ability students (n = 299) were in their second year of high school and were attending either a science high school (n = 111) or a regular high school (n = 188) in the same province in Korea. Both groups completed the Psychological Well Being scales (Ryff, 1989a) and a researcher-constructed Satisfaction With School Life scale. In addition, the science high school students responded to open-ended questions about their experiences in the science high school. No statistically significant differences were found in psychological well-being, but there were statistically significant differences in school life satisfaction favoring the science high school group. The responses of the science high school sample to the open-ended questions indicated that they appreciated the advanced curriculum and the expertise of their teachers. They also reported satisfactory relationships with teachers and peers. Overall, the study suggested that the residential science high school was meeting the educational needs of these talented Korean students, at least better than traditional high schools. However, this study could not confirm its primary expectation that the specialized schooling for gifted students would enhance psychological well-being. Implications of the study for research and practice are discussed.

This study examined the psychological changes that 272 students experienced while attending a residential school for gifted adolescents in the Midwest. This article shares the quantitative portion of a mixed-methods study. Outcome measurement data from the Youth Outcome Questionnaire Self-Report 2.0 (YOQ-SR) tracked students’ level of psychological distress over the course of an academic year. Using Latent Growth Curve Model (LGM) analysis, the results indicated a strong negative correlation (r = −.884) between the slope and quadratic change, meaning the more the students’ level of stress increased, the more rapidly they were able to reduce it over time. Overall, student distress was not significant enough to reach clinical levels. There was no evidence to support the notion that the residential school experience was harmful to student psychological development.

This discourse is the qualitative component of a mixed-methods study that examined how students were psychologically affected while attending a 2-year residential high school (Academy) in the Midwest. This aspect of the study focused on the emic perspective of nine students using a phenomenological-type approach. To that end, interviews were conducted with nine senior students with a wide range of Youth Outcome Questionnaire-Self Report 2.0 assessed during their junior year from the quantitative portion. From the interviews, 28 invariant constituents emerged. Four categories were generated from the invariant constituents to describe student experiences: psychological changes, academic adjustment, social adjustment, and social comparison. Students made cognitive and behavioral changes to adapt to the different challenges of the school. Though generally stressful, the students described their enrollment at the school as beneficial and felt more prepared for college.

Giftedness is a complex multifaceted phenomenon that can be realized taking into account a complex of psychological, psychophysiological and social factors. The results of the empirical study indicate that gifted adolescents, who live and grow up in a boarding school, experience the emotional tension that negatively influences their activities and development. The identification of giftedness is important for conducting the appropriate psychological correctional activities in order to support gifted adolescent's personality and his/her development. Gifted adolescents that are brought up in the conditions of a boarding school experience a greater level of emotional tension than adolescents with lower level of creativity. Emotional tension gets included in the development of the adolescent personality, producing the negative emotions. The social conditions are among the factors contributing to the high emotional tension of gifted adolescents.