Date Awarded

1991

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Advisor

John F. Lavach

Abstract

This study was undertaken for the purpose of determining if the siblings of gifted elementary students differ significantly from siblings of non-gifted elementary students in sibling affection, self-concept, or observable classroom behavior; and to investigate the relationship between sibling affection and self-concept, sibling affection and observable classroom behavior, and self-concept and observable classroom behavior.;The sample was selected from a large, urban school district located in the Mid-South. Thirty-eight pairs of siblings were selected from two-sibling families in which both children were enrolled in grades 3 through 6. Group 1 (Gifted/Siblings) consisted of first-born children who were state certified as intellectually gifted and who were participating in a gifted program and their second-born siblings who were continuously enrolled in regular classroom programs. Group 2 (Older/Younger) consisted of first-born children and their second-born siblings where both were continuously enrolled in regular classroom programs.;All participants were administered the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale and the Family Relationship Inventory; half the participants were also administered the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test, Children's Version. The Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale II was completed by the classroom teacher and demographic information was gathered by a parental questionnaire.;It was hypothesized that (1) siblings of gifted elementary students did not differ significantly (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) from siblings of non-gifted elementary students in sibling affection, self-concept, or observable classroom behavior; and that (2) there was no significant relationship (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) between sibling affection and self-concept, sibling affection and observable classroom behavior, or self-concept and observable classroom behavior.;The study found that siblings of gifted elementary students did not differ significantly (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) from siblings of non-gifted elementary students in self-concept or observable classroom behavior; they also did not differ significantly (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) in sibling affection on the Family Relationship Inventory. On the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test, however, the siblings of gifted elementary students differed significantly (p {dollar}<{dollar}.01) from siblings of non-gifted elementary students in terms of raw scores; they were significantly more negative.;There was a significant (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) relationship between self-concept and observable classroom behavior in siblings of gifted elementary students. No significant relationship existed between sibling affection and self-concept or between sibling affection and observable classroom behavior in siblings of gifted elementary students.;Further study is needed to evaluate these results in a highly competitive school environment, with a clearly established definition of giftedness, and designed to include parental perceptions.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-x2rk-vn67

Rights

© The Author

Download

Share Feedback

Share

COinS