Summum bonum

Abstract

The purposes of this dissertation were to provide additional information about life satisfactionglobally and in regard to relevant dimensions of life satisfactionand the relationship between these aspects of life satisfaction in a sample of profoundly gifted youth. Participants in the Davidson Young Scholars Program (DYS)a program designed specifically for profoundly gifted youthcompleted a 90-item survey that included items pertinent to a variety of life domains. Findings paint a picture of profoundly gifted adolescents as satisfied across life dimensions and, perhaps, more satisfied than their peers. Their satisfaction was not related to gender, though varied with age. Their school satisfaction was related to their accelerative dose, though not with whether they had been radically accelerated. The five dimensions of life satisfaction provided a very good fit (45.2%) for understanding global satisfaction in this sample and add context to existing knowledge about satisfaction among profoundly gifted adults. Further research should address how satisfaction with self-changes over time and the lack of differences in satisfaction between genders during adolescence becomes significantly different over time. v PUBLIC ABSTRACT My dissertation examined the life satisfaction of a group of profoundly gifted youththose scoring above the 99.9 th percentile on a standardized intelligence test. These youth, drawn from the Davidson Young Scholars Program, completed a 90-item survey that included items pertinent to a variety of life domains. Specifically, these domains included satisfaction with school, family, self, friends, where they live, and with themselves. The results of the study indicated that profoundly gifted adolescents were quite satisfied across life dimensionsperhaps even more satisfied than their peers from the general school population in the United States. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .