The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children: What Do We Know?

2001

INTRODUCTION

by Nancy M. Robinson, Ph.D.

There is no more varied group of young people than the diverse group known as gifted children and adolescents. Not only do they come from every walk of life, every ethnic and socioeconomic group, and every nation, but they also exhibit an almost unlimited range of personal characteristics in temperament, risk taking and conservatism, introversion and extroversion, reticence and assertiveness, and degree of effort invested in reaching goals. Furthermore, no standard pattern of talent exists among gifted individuals. Included in this group are both those moderately advanced students who might be overlooked in a regular classroom setting and those whose talents are so far from the usual range that they have an obvious need for dramatic educational adjustments. Despite their diversity, several common threads emerge in the experiences and characteristics of gifted individuals that call for special attention if they are to develop optimally and use their abilities well.

This book summarizes what is known about the social and emotional characteristics of gifted individuals and the issues they encounter. It has been produced by a task force of psychologists and educators associated with the National Association for Gifted Children, some of them members of its counseling and research divisions, and many who work intimately with children of high potential and their families (see page 295 for a list of task force members). Our goal was to produce a book that comprehensively summarizes the best recent research about the social and emotional characteristics of, and issues faced by, gifted children and adolescents. For the most part, the findings are based on research conducted in the last two decades and in the United States, although some findings from older studies and some conducted in other countries are also included.

We have undertaken this effort not because these youngsters sustain any inherent vulnerability associated with their giftedness per se, but because their needs are so often unrecognized and unmet, with predictable negative consequences. We also believe that this underserved population is worthy of our attention. They cannot be expected to make it on their own, nor should they.

This book is addressed to a broad audience of adults who are engaged—or may decide to become engaged—with a population of young people who are simultaneously intriguing and challenging, who exhibit the potential for outstanding development and performance in both the immediate and the distant future. The findings summarized here are also relevant to the nurturance of talent development in general, with important implications for the integration of those social and emotional factors necessary for high performance.

To achieve such goals, however, takes support from many understanding adults. Family members and teachers are often on the front line, but so are coaches, counselors, tutors, Scout leaders, and other mentors. Peers also play a very formative role in the lives of these young people, and adults can help to improve the peer climate for high achievement and facilitate access to other young people of similar ability and interests. We hope that describing the issues will encourage adults toward a variety of efforts on behalf of these children so that they can develop their talents to their fullest expression.

Who Are Gifted Students?

As we have mentioned, the students about whom this book is written are a highly diverse group of individuals. They all share ability, in one or more domains, that is sufficiently advanced that it requires adaptation in the ordinary environment that serves the needs of average students their age. No firm consensus exists among professionals as to precisely who should be considered gifted, talented, or both. This lack of consensus extends to the domains involved (e.g., domains such as leadership and athletic skills are included in some, but not all, definitions) and even the degree of advancement required for designation in this group. In practice, definitions adopted by schools vary greatly and are often more attuned to the programs a school district has decided to offer than to a more general definition of giftedness or talent. Indeed, even the words gifted and talented are used in conflicting ways by different authors. Rather than becoming too concerned about the precise parameters by which this group may be defined, we offer a widely accepted definition developed by a representative group of experts convened by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education (1993):

Children and youth with outstanding talent perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment.

These children and youth exhibit high performance capability in intellectual, creative, and/or artistic areas, possess an unusual leadership capacity, or excel in specific academic fields. They require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools.

Outstanding talents are present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor. (p. 26)

While most of the focus in this book is on students with advanced academic abilities, the reader will also find discussion of creatively gifted students, those whose talents lie in areas not represented in the schools, and some who show advancement in areas sometimes described as emotional intelligence. For the sake of variety and in keeping with the flexible definition above, we have interchangeably used phrases such as gifted students, highly capable students, talented students, and advanced students, or, on occasion, specific groups such as math-talented students. Our focus is meant to be broad, rather than narrow, and to encompass students with advanced abilities in almost all socially valued domains, excluding only the athletically gifted, for whom supports and community approbation already exist in abundance.

What We Have Learned

The research reviewed in the chapters to come indicates that high-ability students are typically at least as well adjusted as any other group of youngsters. Nevertheless, they face a number of situations that, while not unique to them, constitute sources of risk to their social and emotional development. Some of these issues emerge because of the mismatch with educational environments that are not responsive to the pace and level of gifted students’ learning and thinking. This situation is exacerbated by a social milieu that is often unsupportive and negative and, indeed, by a larger society that is, in many ways, frankly anti-intellectual. Some issues arise from the creativity, energy, intensity, and high aspirations of these students, as well as the internal unevenness in development that may exist in this group. Still other issues emanate from the difficulty many talented youth experience in finding compatible friends and the pressures they encounter to be and act like everyone else. Students who are doubly different from the norm by being gifted in addition to being a member of an ethnic or sexual minority group or who have disabilities, such as attention-deficit disorder or a learning disability, have even more complex situations to address.

The conclusions from this comprehensive review are consistent: There is no research evidence to suggest that gifted and talented children are any less emotionally hardy than their age peers. There are, however, aspects of their life experiences due to their differences from other children and the fact that most of them demonstrate greater maturity in some domains than others that may put them at risk for specific kinds of social and emotional difficulties if their needs are unmet. Equally important, failure to target explicitly those affective components known to foster optimal talent development may compromise or prevent actualization of their full potential.

The organization of this book follows a three-section outline that we have found useful in conceptualizing the social and emotional issues facing the gifted child and the adults who care for them:

• Section One: Issues deriving from students’ advancement compared with age peers and from internal unevenness in development

• Section Two: Common areas of psychological response

• Section Three: Groups of gifted children and youth with special needs

• Section Four: Promising practices and interventions

In this chapter, these topics are briefly introduced before proceeding to the research summaries provided in the chapters that follow.

Issues Deriving From Students’ Advancement Compared With Age Peers

First, we describe issues deriving from the maturity of highly capable children in comparison to their age peers, advancement that inevitably puts them out of sync with schools, social groups, and other contexts designed for average children of their age. What fits others very well may not fit them at all. Schools provide the primary nonfamily institution to which children are exposed during their growing years. Indeed, children’s presence is legally required in classrooms six hours a day for at least 180 days a year, unless parents have elected to school them at home. Unfortunately, our schools have been notably unresponsive to the various ways in which they might provide a better match for the level and pace of development of students with advanced capabilities. Recent research presented in this book clearly indicates that teachers can seldom adequately meet the needs of gifted children in regular classrooms with classmates of their age.

Yet, numerous strategies are available for making the education of gifted students at least as appropriate for them as is the ordinary classroom environment for other students. In fact, many of the techniques developed for gifted students are capable of greatly strengthening educational approaches for all children and can benefit gifted students in regular classroom settings, as well as challenge other students. These techniques include compacting the curriculum to avoid wasting time teaching what children already know, differentiating and extending what is taught to accommodate varied pacing and levels of development, using high-interest content and hands-on activities to create high engagement and creativity, grouping gifted students together in cluster groups within classrooms or across classrooms to form more homogeneous groups, and so on. Specific for gifted children are various strategies of accelerating instruction, often using regular classes but adjusting the age at which students enter them. Also specific for gifted children are self-contained classes or schools where instruction can be provided appropriately and classmates are sufficiently similar in age, interests, and maturity to provide a true peer context.

Indeed, the social context in which gifted children grow is as significant for their social and emotional health as is the educational context in which they learn. As a group, gifted children demonstrate more mature social competence and occupy more valued positions in their peer networks than do children of average ability, at least during the early school years. On the other hand, gifted children may have a more mature concept of what a friend should be than do their agemates, and they may not feel they have real friends, even though others view them as well accepted or even popular. In the process of developing coping strategies, gifted students may deny their academic needs in order to satisfy their social needs. As early as elementary school, some gifted youngsters try to hide and even deny their talents; by adolescence, the situation becomes much more common. Students who are able to find intellectual peers, either by placement in a special program or by acceleration, generally feel less pressure to conform and more freedom to pursue academic goals. In the absence of peer support, however, the pressures on gifted students may be intense and stressful.

The situation is exacerbated for those students who are extremely intellectually gifted, especially those children with high verbal abilities who demonstrate observable differences nearly every time they speak. Because their exceptional level of ability is rare, it is often difficult for highly gifted students to find compatible friends, especially when they are young and their social sphere is restricted to a particular classroom, school, neighborhood, or small town. Because of this, they are likely to be less socially adept, more introverted, and more inhibited than other gifted children.

Additional issues derive from the fact that almost all gifted children are ahead of the norm in some ways more than in others. Typically, for example, their intellectual development exceeds their development in physical maturity and in fine and gross motor skills. Even within intellectual domains, they are likely to demonstrate more advancement in some abilities than others. They may, for example, be considerably more advanced in verbal than visual-spatial abilities, or vice-versa, to an extent that masks or interferes with expression of their talents and makes them seem undeserving of special programming efforts or support. Unevenness in cognitive abilities is correlated with IQ across the spectrum; the higher the IQ, the greater the disparities. By virtue of being ahead in one or more domains, the degree of internal differences gifted children experience is usually greater than those encountered by any average child who does not have a disability.

Common Areas of Psychological Response

One example of typical unevenness has to do with the fact that affect regulation in gifted children is often (but not always) more mature than expected for chronological age, but less mature than the child’s mental or intellectual age. Affect regulation involves managing emotional experience in a healthy way. Gifted children often have fears like those of older nongifted children (for example, they encounter the dangers of nuclear warfare or the implications of the concept of infinity at an early age), but do not have the emotional control to put these insights aside and go on with their lives. Adults often expect gifted children to behave in all ways like older children and are confused and frustrated when the children prove unexpectedly immature by these exaggerated expectations. What many adults do not realize is that a 6-year-old who has the verbal ability of a 12-year-old may still act like a 6-year-old at certain times. These actions are not immature; rather, they are developmentally appropriate.

On the other hand, there is a group of children who have been called emotionally gifted who are advanced in understanding their own emotions and are empathic with the feelings and views of others. They may show propensities for expressions of compassion, moral sensitivity, loyalty, resistance to victimization, and forgiveness. Some of them intuitively understand complex emotional issues at very young ages. Some cannot watch the news as they cry over every local or national tragedy. Some carry the burden of family problems on very young shoulders and cannot enjoy or appreciate life as a child because they are so worried about problems in their home or school or the world. Some of their positive traits, such as moral sensitivity, carry risks, however, when their age peers fail to understand their views and subject them to ridicule and the other cruelties of childhood.

Some common areas of psychological vulnerability that are created in part by the intensity of gifted children’s experience, their high levels of aspiration, their clarity of insights, and their creativity (going outside the box). Some phenomena, like perfectionism, underachievement, and indecision about which of several talents to pursue, can indeed pose particular pitfalls for gifted students. Others, like suicide and delinquency, are often said to be problems for gifted persons, although no reliable evidence exists to verify this claim.

Few authors have developed psychological theories specific to gifted persons, and the question is still open as to whether qualitative differences exist between gifted and average children or whether the differences are more a matter of maturity. One of the few theories about gifted persons has emerged from the work of the Polish author, Kazimierz Dabrowski (see Chapter 6), who described in gifted individuals what he termed forms of psychic overexcitability in psychomotor, sensory, intellectual, imaginational, and emotional experience. He described a developmental progression that involves successive breaking down of inferior cognitive and emotional attributes and reconstructing more mature ones. While this concept emphasizes the positive aspects of experiencing life with greater intensity and sensitivity, some children may be overwhelmed and others may sacrifice sensitivities in order to conform to the expectations of others.

Another area of vulnerability for gifted children occurs for those who have a view of their own ability as a given entity or gift that should lead to high attainment by itself, without hard work. Opportunities for new learning and true mastery are less important to such children than opportunities to demonstrate their ability—but, they must avoid at all costs situations in which they might not perform well. Such views are often unwittingly encouraged by adults who habitually underchallenge students and overpraise them.

Perfectionism—holding very high standards for one’s performance—can be a potent force capable of producing either negative or positive outcomes. Among the causes of negative perfectionism are parents who are themselves perfectionistic or critical; excessive adult adulation; pervasive messages from the media, teachers, and peers that one must be the best; and, particularly for the most able students, the fact that they are, in reality, better able than others to meet high standards of performance. Perfectionism that translates into persistence leads to success; perfectionism that results in avoidance, anxiety, and withdrawal guarantees failure.

Underachievement is widely regarded as an epidemic of contemporary society, but is all the more costly for those children whose potential is the highest. Underachievement can arise from multiple sources, including underchallenging schools, peer pressure for conformity, social isolation, family dysfunction, unrecognized disabilities, and so on. The pattern is not easily undone and often persists into adulthood. Students who have succeeded in overcoming underachievement often cite the roles of parents and teachers; changes in their self-image; and stimulating, interest-based classes.

Many gifted students exhibit multipotentiality, or a variety of talent domains in which they might excel. While, for most students, talent profiles are somewhat uneven, their abilities provide many potential areas for future success. While these are clearly assets in many ways, some individuals are torn by indecision in the face of this wealth and consequently fail to pursue true expertise in any of them.

With the exception of creatively gifted adolescents who are talented in writing or the visual arts, studies have not confirmed that gifted individuals manifest significantly higher or lower rates or severity of depression than those for the general population. Gifted children’s advanced cognitive abilities, social isolation, sensitivity, and uneven development may be etiological factors when they do become depressed. However, their problem-solving abilities, advanced social skills, moral reasoning, out-of-school interests, resilience, and satisfaction in achievement may be protective factors. Similarly, it is not at all clear whether suicide is more or less common in gifted adolescents than other adolescents—the statistics simply are not available—although it is easy to develop rationales why the rates should be higher or lower.

Recent incidents of lethal school violence by bright young people have refueled long-term speculation that gifted youngsters may be at special risk for delinquent, criminal, or violent behavior. Evidence to date suggests the opposite, that gifted students evidence less delinquency than average. The situation is extraordinarily complex, however, and may take decades to sort out.

The concept of risk and resilience constitutes a useful way of understanding the varied responses of gifted students to their circumstances. Gifted young people possess a powerful set of protective assets in their ability to understand situations and to problem solve, and their own achievement in the face of challenge can bring them a valuable sense of inner strength. Yet, they are not immune to stressors such as those associated with dysfunctional families, poverty, disabilities, and racism, in addition to the typical stressors that they share with many other gifted people. Individual circumstances and supports—or their lack—determine in large part the degree to which young people are able to achieve healthy social and emotional adjustment.

Groups of Gifted Students With Special Needs

In Section Three, we describe the special situations encountered by students who are members of specific groups. Gifted females and gifted males each face unique issues. Other gifted students experience differences, not only in terms of their advanced abilities, but also because they are members of nonmainstream communities or have a psychological disability. These twice-exceptional youngsters have their counterparts in the general population, of course, but their needs are sometimes more intense in the context of their high ability.

Talented females’ belief in their ability and their feelings of self-confidence tend to be undermined and diminished during childhood and adolescence. This situation derives in large part because of external factors, including stereotypes and barriers to achievement presented by parents, school, and the larger society, and from internal barriers, including personal priorities for social, rather than achievement goals, declines in self-confidence, and competing choices.

While numerous researchers in gifted education have examined issues for gifted females, few have addressed the issues faced by gifted males. A strong belief in self is associated with success in young men. Yet, the criticism and ridicule that may be addressed to sensitive, empathic, intelligent males are unquestionably difficult to deal with, particularly for males who exhibit psychological androgyny (the capacity to experience simultaneously opposing feelings and roles) and reduced gender-stereotyping.

Gifted students who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual also bear the emotional burden of being twice-different. Coming to terms with differences in both ability and sexual orientation may lead to a denial of either aspect of one’s identity or, more frequently, to social isolation and loss of self-esteem. No reason exists to suspect that the gifted population includes more (or fewer) such students, but the school climate may be particularly unsafe for these teenagers, who are subjected to a double dose of psychological, if not physical, harassment.

Children from ethnic or racial minority groups are consistently underrepresented in gifted programs, leading to widespread concern. The experience of gifted Black students has been more closely studied than that of other underrepresented minorities. These students encounter more barriers to racial identity development than do White students, particularly when they feel they must choose between academic success and social acceptance. Some gifted Black students sabotage their own school achievement in order to strengthen their sense of belonging in their social group.

Students who are creatively gifted in the arts are often undervalued in traditional educational settings where linear, conventional learning and problem solving are encouraged. Many are gifted in nonacademic areas, such as dance or sculpture, that are not taught in schools. A special risk for bipolar mood disorders exists for those with high creative ability in writing and in the visual arts, although most creative artists and writers are not subject to such diagnosable conditions. Those who become concert musicians may also experience a difficult period as they emerge from the precocity of childhood to the giftedness of the adult. Some emotional volatility and release from conventional thinking may be effective in setting the stage for creative efforts, so again, the situation has both positive and negative components.

Gifted students with learning disabilities are at high risk for having their giftedness or their disabilities pass unnoticed because they appear simply nongifted (because of the disabilities) or lazy (because, although known to be gifted, they have trouble producing high-quality work). Even those who are appropriately identified may encounter difficulties in social adjustment because, in settings for gifted students, there is less tolerance for their struggles with self-direction and for the extra time they need to complete high-quality work and because some impairment of social skills may accompany their learning difficulties.

Similarly, gifted children with attention-deficit disorder, with or without hyperactivity (AD/HD), are at risk for difficulties with social and emotional adjustment. Some gifted children who do not have AD/HD but are high-energy youngsters seem disorganized in school settings that fail to capture their attention or satisfy their avid curiosity. For those who do have attention-deficit disorder, however, the issues that increase their risks include misidentification, emotional immaturity, peer rejection, family stress, and school problems, all of which are enhanced by their difficulties with consistent management of attention and organization.

Promising Practices and Interventions and Recommendations for Future Action

In the fourth section, we describe parenting patterns that are conducive to children’s high achievement and creativity, we point to some prevention and intervention approaches that have been found to be useful in supporting the development of gifted young people, and we make some recommendations for future action.

Compared with the general population, gifted children tend to come from families that are more often intact and warmly engaged with one another, that have more financial and educational resources for their use, and have higher aspirations for their children. On average, parents of gifted children invest more time and effort than other parents in engaging the children in learning activities and introducing them to potential talent areas. Some of the findings are, however, counterintuitive, particularly with regard to troubled family contexts that encourage creativity as opposed to attainment of conventional goals.

In recognition of the scarcity of empirical studies of long-term assessment of their efforts, we point to the most promising interventions and supports suggested by the research. As yet, little is known about precisely what kinds of guidance strategies are most effective in nurturing talent and potential and minimizing the effects of the kinds of vulnerable situations we have identified. Nevertheless, the research clearly points to several general practices that facilitate optimal development among our most talented young people. These include practices that support and encourage accelerative learning experiences; time to learn with others of similar abilities, interests, and motivation; engagement in areas of interest with a variety of peers; mentoring and pragmatic coaching to cope with the stress, criticism, and social milieu associated with high levels of performance in any domain; early presentation of career information; and social and emotional curricular approaches to help gifted children support one another.

When children or adolescents do encounter specific difficulties such as isolation and alienation; mood disturbances; perfectionism; or issues of racial, cultural, or sexual identity, a variety of counseling approaches can be made available, including individual counseling, groups, and family interventions.

With respect to the situations of specific subgroups of gifted students, a number of targeted approaches have been suggested. For example, career indecision besets many gifted individuals whose multiple high abilities would make it possible for them to pursue any of a number of paths. Some float aimlessly for years. Others, because of unwise early choices, close doors prematurely to careers that would have brought them satisfaction. Most career counseling for gifted students has stressed academic choices such as college selection, ignoring the multiple complex issues that have to do with the student’s personal characteristics, collateral interests, and the contextual demands.

Underachievement among this group of students is a costly and, in many ways, tragic