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Feelings and attitudes of gifted students

Adolescence, Summer, 1998 by Tiffany Field, Jeff Harding, Regina Yando, Ketty Gonzalez, David Lasko, Debra Bendell, Carol Marks

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Drug use. Four items on the Background Information Questionnaire assess smoking and the use of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Answers range from regularly to never, with lower scores signifying more drug use. These questions are asked in the past tense so students, even though anonymous, do not feel incriminated by their answers.

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Perceptions about giftedness. The 24-item Perceptions about Giftedness Scale (Field & Yando, 1991) was developed to assess gifted students' perceptions of themselves relative to peers not in the gifted program, as well as their feelings about giftedness. Questions are divided into three subscales. The Self-Perceived Academic Skills subscale asks students to compare themselves on 9 items: math/science, spelling/writing, grades in general, organize homework, original, flexible, task-oriented, creative, and open-minded (Cronbach's alpha = .69). Answers range from worse/less to better/more. The Self-Perceived Social Skills subscale also consists of 9 comparison items: get along with teachers, get along with peers, understand people, make friends, make conversation, get along with adults, have close friends, make jokes, and talkative (Cronbach's alpha = .63). Responses include worse/less, same, and better/more. The Unhappy with Giftedness subscale consists of 6 true/false items on what it means to be in the gifted class: being rejected by students not in the gifted class, academic pressure, social pressure, other students not understanding giftedness, teachers expecting more because of giftedness, and sometimes wishing not being gifted (Cronbach's alpha = .68).

RESULTS

Chi-square analyses revealed an uneven ethnic distribution. The gifted program had more white non-Hispanics and Asians and fewer blacks and Hispanics. In addition, more parents of gifted children had received a postgraduate education. The groups did not differ, however, on self-perceived SES level.

Analyses of variance were performed to compare the gifted and nongifted students' responses on the scales. Ethnicity and parental education levels were entered on covariates. Gifted students, as compared with nongifted peers, perceived themselves as being more intimate with best friends, as assuming fewer family responsibilities, and as taking greater risks in sports and dangerous activities (see Table 2).

Consistent with rating themselves as being more intimate with friends, gifted students also indicated on relationship items from the Background Information Questionnaire that they were closer to friends than to family. For example, approximately 62% indicated "friend" in response to the statement, "There is an important person in my life," while an equivalent number of nongifted students indicated "parent and friend" ([[Chi].sup.2] = 9.0, p [less than] .005). Similarly, when answering the question, "I feel closer to my friends than to my family," 42% of the gifted students responded often or very often as compared with 22% of the nongifted students ([[Chi].sup.2] = 18.4, p [less than] .001).

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Feelings and attitudes of gifted students

Adolescence, Summer, 1998 by Tiffany Field, Jeff Harding, Regina Yando, Ketty Gonzalez, David Lasko, Debra Bendell, Carol Marks

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