Gifted Child Quarterly

The 19 youngest college students in Terman's classic longitudinal study were compared with others of the same approximate age and IQ on academic and career progress and psychosocial adjustment. The young college students earned higher grades, more academic honors, and participated in more extracurrcular activities. They graduated and entered the professions earlier, and were, in 1940, more often rated as "high achievers," although this qualitative difference had disappeared by 1960. No differences in psychosocial adjustment were discovered.

While many studies have investigated family characteristics that distinguish children with gifted-level abili- ties from other children, less attention has been given to family characteristics that are associated with personality adjustment within the gifted- level poupulation. This study addresses the question of which aspects of the family environmentare are significantly correlated with healthy personality adjustment among a group of children already identified as gifted. Each of the 10 scales contained in the widely used Family Environment Scales (Moos & Moos, 1981) was correlated with personality adjustment scores of 83 children, ages 7 to 11, who were attending either a public or private school gifted program. Personality adjustment was assessed by parent, child, and teacher report measures. Findings suggest that mutually supportive and open family relationships are more important to the child's self- esteem and overall adjustment that are specific family activities or value orientations.

The goal of the research was to define conditions of excellence by an historical analysis of the psychological traits and childhood environments of eminent essayists of history. A sample of 42 foremost essayists, historians, and critics was used. The sample was derived from earlier work on eminence by Cattell (1903) and Terman (1925). Encyclopaedia Britannica biographers and other researchers rated a list of traits and conditions concerning cognitive, affective, familiar, and educational aspect of the sample. The results of Chi-square tests of significance focus on the degree of persistence of the traits and conditions and suggest that while intelligence is a component of eminence, environmental influences are substantial. Familial, school, and social conditions reticulated an indispensable support during the childhoods of the future essayists. Educators and parents have a responsibility to provide the conditions that foster excellence.

This investigation was designed to examine the reactions of gifted students, and to a lesser extent, those of average and EMR students, to success and failure in the school setting. Attributions, persistence of effort following a failure, willingness to attempt a task following failure, as well as future expectations for success were explored. Students were assessed in two conditions in which success and failure were manipulated. Results indicated that gifted students did not credit success to ability as predicted, but instead to a low level of task difficulty. The expectations of gifted students were very high initially, but considereably lower following a failure, as were those of the average and EMR groups. Gifted students showed more persistence in regard to the difficult task than EMR students and also chose more often to repeat the difficult task.

This stxa r"n"ihe term effects of the "gifted e families in this study had at least one child identified as gifted a minimum of five years prior to the study. The results of the study show that the long-term effects of the gifted label are in part a reverse of the reported immediate effects. Research on immediate effects indicates difficulties for non-labeled siblings. Long-term effects indicate that siblings "came to terms" with the label and did not seem to harbor negative feelings or recollections. While the families reported an overall positive attitude towards the gifted member, it was the gifted member who seemed less certain of the positive feelings of siblings and parents regarding the label.

An interview protocol containing 119 items was administered to identify patterns of attitudes and practices among fathers of young gifted children (N = 9) which differed from those among fathers of young non-gifted children (N = 10). Although there were many similarities, differences were observed in six thematic areas: general involvement, reading emphasis, orallanguage emphasis, psychomotor emphasis, concern for the child's self-esteem, and push for independence. Implications for educational practice and for research are discussed.

In this article, an overives of some of the major issues, questions and problems related to gifted females will be presented. These issues include the underachievement of gifted females; creative productivity of females; male dominance in mathematics and science; cultural stereotyping, sex roles and mixed messages; lack of planning; the perfection complex and the imposter syndrome; concerns about counseling and special populations, Research related to the issues of ability, achievement, personality, social and environmental pressures related to gender will be briefly discussed and suggestions for future research directions will be made.

Abstcact Providing appropriate counseling for gifted and talented students requires deliberate effort to increase knowledge about self-development, awareness of social realities, and understanding about the interaction of conflict and intimacy in adolescence. This article presents an overview of a two-tiered curriculum model used to proactively counsel and support the growth of young gifted adolescents. Key developmental issues form the core of the curriculum, while integrated learning strategies are applied to two audiences: gifted adolescents themselves, and their parents, teachers, and counselors. Features of the model, a sample unit design, and suggestions for implementing the curriculum conclude the article.