Academic Giftedness and Alcohol Use in Early Adolescence

Abstract

Adolescence is a period of development particularly vulnerable to the effects of alcohol use, with recent studies underscoring alcohol's effects on adolescent brain development. Despite the alarming rates and consequences of adolescent alcohol use, gifted adolescents are often overlooked as being at risk for early alcohol use. Although gifted adolescents may possess protective factors that likely inhibit the use of alcohol, some gifted youth may be vulnerable to initiating alcohol use during adolescence as experimenting with alcohol may be one way gifted youth choose to compensate for the social price (whether real or perceived) of their academic talents. To address the dearth of research on alcohol use among gifted adolescents the current study (a) examined the extent to which gifted adolescents use alcohol relative to their nongifted peers and (b) examined the adjustment profile of gifted adolescents who had tried alcohol relative to nongifted adolescents who tried alcohol as well as gifted and nongifted abstainers. More than 300 students in seventh grade (42.5% gifted) participated in the present study. Results indicated gifted students have, in fact, tried alcohol at rates that do not differ from nongifted students. Although trying alcohol was generally associated with negative adjustment, giftedness served as a moderating factor such that gifted students who had tried alcohol were less at risk than their nongifted peers. However, evidence also suggests that gifted adolescents who tried alcohol may be a part of a peer context that promotes substance use, which may place these youth at risk for adjustment difficulties in the future.

From A (Aggression) to V (Victimization): Peer Status and Adjustment Among Academically Gifted Students in Early Adolescence

“…School records indicated that they had higher course grades and standardized test scores than nonidentified grademates. Similar to previous work, there were no group differences with regard to peer-perceived victimization (Estell et al, 2009) or self-reported substance use (Peairs et al, 2011). When the two forms of aggression were compared within groups, gifted students displayed a relative preference for the more covert, relational form of aggression.…”

“…Schneider et al (1989) found that gifted children were viewed by peers as more prosocial (i.e., sociability/leadership) and less aggressive in fifth grade, but they no longer differed on these dimensions in 8th and 10th grades. Gifted students are experimenting with alcohol use in middle school (Peairs, Eichen, Putallaz, Costanzo, & Grimes, 2011), and a recent U.K. study (White & Batty, 2011) linked high IQs in childhood to greater drug use in adulthood, even after controlling for known correlates (i.e., socioeconomic status [SES] and psychological distress). The authors argued that a relationship between high IQ and “openness to new experiences” may underlie experimentation with drugs.…”

Cyberbullying and Internet Addiction in Gifted and Nongifted Teenagers

“…Our findings regarding more robust associations involving cyberaggression could be explained by the age of the participants. Although gifted students might be well-regarded by their peers (sometimes being even more popular), this popularity disappears around the age of 13 years and the forced choice dilemma between excellence and peer approval becomes ever greater (Peairs et al, 2011; Rimm, 2002). In adolescence, the social cost to being accepted may lead to personal vulnerability and to engagement in pathological, violent behaviors on the Internet, by leaning toward group expectations, and developing alternative identities that fit better with the peer culture (Lee et al, 2012).…”

“…We speculate that a shortcoming in interpersonal factors could contribute to a negative self-perception in their social relationships, a feeling of rejection or exclusion, and no social benefit to being intelligent, even if the objective data do not describe this reality (Lee et al, 2012). It could also be speculated that gifted students' asynchronous development, and characteristics such as greater sensitivity toward social situations, together with more demanding behavior, makes some gifted adolescents more vulnerable and less competent in their online relationships and/or more prone to show passive aggressive behaviors with greater implications and frequency than nonidentified students (Espelage & King, 2018;Peairs et al, 2019). A straightforward explanation for the distinct pattern of associations found for gifted and nonidentified students regarding the role of interpersonal factors explaining cyberbullying would require new, more specific studies devoted to exploring differences in social strategic behaviors used by gifted and nonidentified students.…”

Differences in SBP, BMI, and Stress with AUDIT Score in Adolescents

“…The consumption of alcohol by adolescents is associated with social problems such as maladjustment at school, assaults, theft, and use of medicines that negatively affect physical and cognitive development. This is now recognized as a family and social problem rather than being restricted to an individual [3]. Adolescents are more vulnerable than adults to drinking because they are in a stage of physical growth and physiological development.…”