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The social competence of highly gifted math and science adolescents

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Abstract

Involving 740 highly gifted math and science students from two different countries, Korea and the United States, this study examined how these gifted adolescents perceived their interpersonal ability and peer relationships and whether there were differences between these two groups by demographic variables. Based on the survey data, results showed that our gifted students perceived their interpersonal ability and peer relationships at levels comparable to or higher than those of their non-gifted counterparts. They were satisfied and confident with their peer relationships and did not identify negative effects of being gifted when forming and maintaining friendships. Differences were found between Korean and American students by gender in their profiles of interpersonal ability and peer relationships. Positive self-portrayal of social competence found for our sample disputed previous studies suggesting that highly gifted students tend to struggle with social relationships. Given that each group of students had different educational, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds, the results should also be interpreted with caution.

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Notes

  1. Since we did not ask specifically about ages of the students, no specific information is available for each student’s age.

  2. The cut-off scores for the top 3 % on each subtest were as follows: ACT-M ≥ 16 (grade 6), 17 (grade 7), 19 (grade 8), 23 (grade 9); ACT-S ≥ 17 (grade 6), 19 (grade 7), 20 (grade 8), 23 (grade 9); SAT-M ≥ 410 (grade 6), 450 (grade 7), 490 (grade 8), 540 (grade 9).

  3. We did not include KSA students for analysis in order to make the two groups of gifted students (highly vs. moderately) more comparable.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a research grant (Primary Investigator: Seon-Young Lee, first and corresponding author of this manuscript) funded by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity, and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology of Korea from December 2009 to September 2010.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea

    Seon-Young Lee

  2. School of Education, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Paula Olszewski-Kubilius

  3. Center for Talent Development, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Dana Thomson

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  1. Seon-Young Lee
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  2. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius
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  3. Dana Thomson
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Correspondence to Seon-Young Lee.

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Lee, SY., Olszewski-Kubilius, P. & Thomson, D. The social competence of highly gifted math and science adolescents. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 13, 185–197 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-012-9209-x

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