Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Education
Pub Date
10-25-2019
Abstract
The phenomenon of social coping among students with gifts and talents (SWGT) is not well understood. In interviews with elementary-, middle-, and high-school aged SWGT (N = 90; 50% female) from the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, Ireland, and France, the universality of awareness of visibility of their exceptional abilities, high expectations and pressure to achieve from adults and peers, and peer jealousy and rejection, was confirmed. In all countries, SWGT were concerned about peers’ upward social comparison and the effects of their outperformance on peers’ feelings. SWGT attempted to hide their abilities or conform to peers’ behaviors. Prosocial helping behaviors were found among SWGT in nearly all age groups and a focus on the self was a useful coping strategy to students in all countries except France. Parallels are drawn between these findings and Goffman’s (1963) stigma theory.
Journal Title
Roeper Review
Volume
41
Issue
4
Journal Article URL
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02783193.2019.1661052
First Page
224
Recommended Citation
Cross, Jennifer Riedl; Vaughn, Colin T.; Mammadov, Sakhavat; Cross, Tracy L.; Kim, Mihyeon; O’Reilly, Colm; Spielhagen, Frances; Da Costa, Maria Pereira; and Hymer, Barry, A Cross-Cultural Study of the Social Experience of Giftedness (2019). Roeper Review, 41(4), 224-242.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/educationpubs/150
Publisher Statement
This version is the accepted manuscript version of the article.
