The literature on psychological and social development in gifted children is beset with problems of inconsistency in definitions and imprecision of measures, both for giftedness itself (

Two-hundred seventy-one elementary age high-IQ children and their parents completed an extensive battery of questions on social and emotional development. Eighty-eight children (37%) conceptualized themselves as differing from their peers. Although they described differences in a positive fashion, and although their self-esteem was above the mean reported for a large normative sample, it was lower than that of high-IQ children who did not think of themselves as being different. Furthermore, the reports about peer relations given by children who thought themselves different contained more signs suggesting difficulties than did those of children who did not. These results suggest that many cognitively gifted children need increased psychological support if they are to optimize their personal and social development.

No abstract

The questionnaire responses of 24 markedly accelerated young students were compared with those of 24 regular-aged university students, 23 National Merit Scholars, and 27 students who had qualified for acceleration but instead elected to participate in high school. Measures included the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, California Psychological Inventory, the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment. Accelerated students differed minimally from the college-aged groups, and not at all from high-ability age mates, on all of the measures, a finding contrary to the expectation that skipping high school is likely to be deleterious to one's adjustment. Both groups of normal-aged college students were more socially assertive. The accelerated students were less conforming and conventional than the others, but mean differences were small and not indicative of admustment difficulties. The study provides no basis for concern about the typical psychological and social adjustment of accelerated students.

The academic performance of 24 academically accelerated students (mean age at matriculation = 14 years) was compared with that of two groups of college students averaging four years older: 24 matched to the accelerants on pre-entry academic aptitude test scores (or "readiness"), and 24 National Merit Scholars. Accelerated students earned cumulative grade point averages comparable to those earned by National Merit Scholars and significantly higher than those earned by university students matched on pre-entry aptitude tests scores. Accelerated students rated the importance of academic characteristics higher than did the students matched on pre-entry scores and they were more satisfied with the academic environment of the university than either comparison group. Implications of the results are briefly discussed.