Gifted adolescents: An analysis of their psychosocial development

A model for viewing adolescent psychosocial development is outlined. The model assumes that basic changes in adolescents' biological, cognitive, and social capacities reciprocally interact with the social settings of the family, peer group, and school/work to influence transformations in six areas of psychosocial development (attachment, friendship, sexuality, achievement, autonomy, and identity). The model is then used as a framework for reviewing literature regarding gifted adolescents' psychosocial adjustment. On the whole, the literature provides a positive view of the psychosocial adjustment of gifted adolescents. While adjustment problems seem to exist in certain areas (e.g., friendship), unequivocal conclusions cannot be drawn because of methodological limitations and the narrow scope of existing research.     

same-sex weddings,Hindu traditions and modern India

This article examines the phenomenon of same-sex unions, both joint suicides and weddings, mostly among young, low-income, non-English speaking women, that have been reported from many parts of India over the last three decades. Most of the women were Hindus and many of the weddings took place by Hindu rites. None of these women had contact with any LGBT or women's movement or activists before their weddings. Ancient as well as modern texts show that people can and do draw on traditional Hindu ideas about love (as the product of attachments formed in former lives), rebirth (attachments persist from one birth to another) and marriage (which is supposed to outlast one lifetime) to legitimize socially disapproved unions, both cross-sex and same-sex. Right-wing Hindu forces today mistakenly argue that the idea of same-sex love and marriage, and indeed of marriage based on love itself, are Western imports. In fact, same-sex marriages were reported from rural areas and small towns long before the Indian LGBT movement took cognizance of the issue. When families accept them, female couples are generally able to stay together but when families violently oppose them, often with the collusion of local police, couples may be forced to separate or driven to suicide, even though law courts have uniformly upheld the right of consenting adults to live together. Modern Hindu teachers and priests are divided on the question of the validity and desirability of same-sex marriage; a doctrinal debate is now developing.     

Gender-specific pathways to intimacy in early adolescence

As part of a larger longitudinal study of psychosocial development, 148 girls and 130 boys were administered a series of questions regarding a close friend during their eighth-grade school year. Scales corresponding to shared experience, self-disclosure, and intimacy (defined as emotional closeness) were developed from these items. Path-analytic models tested the relative strength of the self-disclosure and shared experience paths to emotional closeness for boys and girls separately. The results indicated that the self-disclosure path to emotional closeness is significant for both boys and girls. No relationship was found between shared experience and emotional closeness in girls when controlling for self-disclosure. The relationship between shared experience and feelings of closeness was, however, significant for boys even while controlling for the effects of self-disclosure. Covariance structure analysis (LISREL) indicated that the covariance matrices for the three scales were significantly different for boys and girls. The results are considered in relation to the gender socialization and friendship literature. The potential importance of defining intimacy as emotional closeness is also discussed.The research reported here was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH30252/38142 to Anne C. Petersen.Research interests include the development of the self-sytem and close relationships during adolescence and young adulthood.Research interests include adolescent mental health and parent and peer relationships.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1973. Research interest is biopsychosocial development in adolescence, with a focus on sex differences in mental health.     

The role of reciprocity and proximity in junior high school friendships

The relationship of reciprocity, sex, and race to friendship proximity in adolescent friendships was studied. Intelligence, personality, physical attractiveness, popularity, and proximity were measured for 136 junior high school students. Subjects were classified as either having reciprocated or nonreciprocated friendships. Reciprocated adolescents were perceived as more attractive, had higher social status, and were more committed to their best friend than nonreciprocated adolescents. More black than white students were in the nonreciprocated group. White students had more in-school contact and black students more out-of-school contact with their friends.This study was supported by a grant from the Wake Forest University Research and Publication Fund. A portion of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, Georgia, March 1985.Received Ph.D. from University of Illinois. Currently studying the friendships and peer relations of children and adolescents.Received M.A. from Wake Forest University. Current interests include child clinical, behavior modification, and the social relationships of children and adolescents.     

Sex differences in identity and intimacy development in college youth

This study examined sex differences in the processes of identity and intimacy development among college youth. Fifty males, and 50 females were given measures of identity status, intimacy status, and self-esteem. Males were found to focus on intrapersonal aspects of identity status, intimacy status, and self-esteem. Males were found to focus on intrapersonal aspects of identity, females on interpersonal aspects. The pursuit of various identity development pathways affected self-esteem differentially for the two sexes. More females than males were found to be intimate and the achievement of intimacy seemed more closely related to identity in males than in females. The findins were interpreted in the context of Eriksonian theory, which seemed more adequate in explaining male than female development.This article is based in part on the doctoral dissertation by James W. Hodgson in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy degree, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.Received his Ph. D. in human development and family studies from The Pennsylvania State University. Current research interests include normative and dysfunctional development of late adolescence.Received her Ph.D. in social personality psychology from the University of Colorado. Current research interests include the developments of friendships and sex roles in adolescence.     

Adolescent dating intimacy: Norms and peer expectations

Both dating behavior and peer expectations, in 317 adolescents, were examined during the first date, after several dates, when going steady, and when some commitment to marriage was undertaken. The results showed an initial tendency for the behavior of males to be more intimate than that of females. Female behavior approached that of males as the commitment in the affectional relationship increased. Generally, both males and females conformed to their peer expectations for less intimate behaviors but not for the deeper forms of sexual embrace, where they imagined their peers to be more experienced.Received his M.A. (Honours I) and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Sydney. Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. Main area of interest is psychology of adolescence.     

Erikson stage resolution: The relationship between identity and intimacy

Ego identity and intimacy statuses were determined for 88 college students, 44 men and 44 women, and related to each other and to measures of intimacy, loving, and liking. As hypothesized, more advanced stages of identity development were associated with higher levels of intimacy formation. Further, for both males and females, occupational identity development was the primary predictive factor in the identity/intimacy stage resolution relationship.Received her M. S. from Utah State University.Received his M. A. in psychology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and his Ph.D. in human development from The Pennsylvania State University.     

Social Coping Among Gifted High School Students and its Relationship to Self-Concept

Several authors suggest that gifted adolescents employ a variety of strategies to cope with perceived negative social effects of recognized high ability. The Social Coping Questionnaire (SCQ) is designed to measure the use of several such strategies. Previous SCQ studies were based on participants who earned high scores on above-level standardized tests. The current study uses a revised SCQ and a differently identified group of gifted students. Factor analysis produced 7 social coping scales similar to those found in previous studies. The scales had adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability at an 8-week interval. Gender differences at Time 1 suggest that females are more likely than males to deny giftedness and maintain high activity levels, whereas males are more likely than females to use humor. Grade level (9–12) main effects and gender by grade level interactions were absent. Relationships with self-concept scores suggest that problem-focused social coping strategies are more adaptive than are emotion-focused, denial-based strategies.     

Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence and Their Relationships with Social Coping Among Gifted Adolescents in Hong Kong

Two hundred and fifty-nine gifted adolescents were assessed on their emotional intelligence and social coping strategies using the Emotional Intelligence Scale (N. S. Schutte et al., Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 167–177, 1998) and the Social Coping Questionnaire (M. A. Swiatek, Gifted Child Quaterly, 39, 154–161, 1995). An item factor analysis yielded four dimensions of emotional intelligence, leading to the construction of 4 empirical scales of emotional intelligence. Students scored most highly on Social Skills and Self-Management of Emotions, followed by Empathy, and Utilization of Emotions. In coping with their being gifted, students endorsed to different degrees their use of 6 coping strategies, which were Valuing Peer Acceptance, Involvement in Activities, Attempting Avoidance, Denying Giftedness, Prizing Conformity, and Discounting Popularity. Social Skills emerged as the most important component of emotional intelligence predicting the use of strategies of Valuing Peer Acceptance and Involvement in Activities. Implications of the findings for enhancing emotional intelligence of adolescents in coping with problems arising from their being gifted and the need for further studies using longitudinal data are discussed.     

Hallucinations in nonpsychotic children and adolescents

The case histories of ten nonpsychotic patients (nine female and one male) who had experienced hallucinations are summarized. Significant anxiety and depression were found in the majority of the patients, five of whom expressed suicidal ideas. Stress factors were primarily family and school. Eight children had combined auditory and visual hallucinations, which involved dead relatives in five cases. The aims or purposes of the hallucinations were multiple, but escape mechanisms were most common. A profile of the nonpsychotic patient most likely to experience hallucinations would be a socially immature teenage girl who is experiencing depression and anxiety due to stress within the family.     

Risk and resilience in young adolescents

This exploratory study focused on the role of risk and protective factors in 179 adolescents from a middle and lower income northeastern school district. The protective factors examined were family cohesion, locus of control, mother/father communication, and relationship with a nonparent adult. The study found that the protective factors were powerful predictors of adaptation in their own right independent of risk. Protective factors were found to be highly context specific and there was no evidence of broadly applicable protective factors. Gender was found to be an important aspect of context, and there were significant sex differences. Most strikingly, the study did not find any significant interactions between protective factors and risk for girls or boys. Thus, these results support the growing view that researchers must identify specific rather than global protective factors that provide protection in the space of specific risks for youth in specific life contexts.A grant from the Boston University Graduate School provided initial support for this project.Received Ph.D. from Yale University in clinical psychology. Research interests include effects of risk, particularly sexual and physical abuse, and resiliency.Received M.A. from Boston University. Research interests include risk and developmental factors in psychopathology.Received Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Boston University Department of Psychology. Research interests include study of adolescence and risk factors.Received Ph.D. from Boston University.Received M.A. from Eastern Nazarine College, Quincy, MA.Received B.A. from Boston University Department of Psychology, Boston, MA 02215.     

Identity and intimacy: An initial investigation of three theoretical models using cross-lag panel correlations

This investigation specified three models regarding the association between identity and intimacy formation and investigated their potential validity using a longitudinal cross-lag panel design. Seventy-one males and 71 females completed identity and intimacy measures on two occasions over a 5-week period. The primary findings are (1) individuals with a clear sense of identity are more likely, 5 weeks later, to have a more advanced sense of intimacy for both sexes when sex-role identification is removed from gender comparisons; (2) sex-role orientation mediates the identity/intimacy association, while for females, a masculine orientation is associated with a pattern similar to that observed for either masculine- or feminine-oriented males; and (3) femininity is associated with a more fused connection between identity and intimacy for females. This report provides an initial investigation studying the identity/intimacy association during late adolescence based on three theoretical perspectives. Theoretical interpretations and conclusions are offered.Partial support for this project was provided by grants to the second author from the Utah State University Agricultural Experiment Station and the Office of Research, Utah State University. Approved as journal paper No. 3917.Research interests are adolescent identity development in the family context, adolescent sexuality, and sex-role development.Research interests focus on personality and social development during adolescence.     

Depression and suicidal ideation in early adolescents

This study sought to determine to what extent depression in young adolescents could be predicted by a variety of demographic and personality measures. A sample of 132 adolescents enrolled in junior high school completed a biographical data sheet, short forms of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), a Sensation- Seeking Scale (SSS), the Family Environment Scale (FES), a social support index (SSI), and a life stress inventory (LSI). The nondepressed group differed from the depressed group on a variety of variables, and stepwise multiple regression suggested a significant relationship between depression and life stress and an inverse relationship between depression and family cohesion.Received Ph.D. from University of North Dakota. Main research interests are family coping and child psychopathology.Received M.A. from University of Washington. Main research interests are adolescent depression and future self-concept.Received M.A. from University of Washington. Main research interests are Projective assessment of Personality.     

Selective attention and self-control in delinquent adolescents

Research studies are briefly reviewed to examine the hypothesis that delinquent adolescents may process information in a different manner than non-delinquents. Studies suggest that delinquents may have less control over which information they attend to, may expose themselves to more stimulation, may process information more slowly, and may selectively attend to different information than matched controls. Findings from a recent study are presented in support of the latter hypothesis. A clinical example illustrates how these attention differences may appear in the course of treatment.This work was conducted while Dr. Rosenthal was a Clinical Research Training Fellow in Adolescence in a program jointly sponsored by the Adolescent Program of the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, and by the Departments of Behavioral Science (Human Development) and Psychiatry of the University of Chicago. The training program was funded by Public Health Service grant T32MH14668.A version of this paper was presented at the Conference on the Psychology of Adolescence, Chicago, June 20–21, 1980. Portions of this article are based upon the doctoral dissertation submitted by Frank Lani in partial fulfillment of the Ph.D. degree, Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois.Received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Vanderbilt University. Current research interests include delinquency, hyperkinesis, and evaluation of hospital treatment.Received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Loyola University. Current research interests include social cognition in delinquency.     

Divergent thinking and self-esteem in preadolescents and adolescents

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between divergent thinking and self-esteem in preadolescents and adolescents. A second focus pertained to sex differences in the dependent variables. A total of 115 White middle class subjects ranging in age from 10–17 years responded to a personal data inventory, a self-esteem measure, and a taped auditory free-response exercise in divergent thinking. Subjects were categorized for data analysis into two age groups, preadolescents and adolescents. Scores were obtained for fluency, flexibility, and originality of thought, and for self-esteem. Adolescents were significantly more fluent and flexible than preadolescents. The two age groups did not differ significantly in orginality or self-esteem. Self-esteem correlated significantly with divergent thinking in preadolescents only. Female adolescents scored significantly higher on all dependent measures than adolescent males; there were no sex differences in preadolescents. Results are discussed from both an intra- and interstage developmental perspective on adolescence.Research assistant and doctoral canditate in human developmental and family studies at Cornell University. Major interests are adolescent and human life-span development.Received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Major interests are the study of creativity and the educational psychology of human life-span development.     

The Effects of Educational Context on Individual Difference Variables,Self-Perceptions of Giftedness,and School Attitudes in Gifted Adolescents

This study examined the effects of educational context on affective outcomes in a sample of 743 gifted Israeli adolescent students. Educational context (special gifted classes versus regular classes—with one day pull-out program) was hypothesized to predict context-sensitive personal variables and labeling of giftedness in the direction of better student personal-social adjustment and more favorable self-perceptions of giftedness in regular compared to special gifted classes. By contrast, students in special classes were predicted to show more positive school attitudes and better overall satisfaction with school than their mainstreamed counterparts. Analyses of the data showed that gifted adolescents in regular classes revealed a more positive personal-social profile than gifted mainstreamed students, showing lower test anxiety, a higher academic self-concept, and more positive perceptions of their giftedness. By contrast, students in special gifted classes held more favorable school attitudes and were more satisfied with their school environment in comparison to their mainstreamed counterparts. Overall, these data support the research hypotheses and point to a differential pattern of relationships between school program and personal-social adjustment, on one hand, and school attitudes and satisfaction, on the other.     

Social support in healthy adolescents

Social support is examined in a representative sample of 141 healthy adolescents. By means of a revised version of the Mannheim Interview on Social Support, the number, type, perceived adequacy (satisfaction), and quality (importance) of the social relationships available were assessed. While peers were found to provide prime supportive functions in day-to-day matters, the social support provided by parents has a stress-buffering effect in emergency situations. The role of other family members is discussed. Differences in gender and education are moderate. The data suggests the adequacy of social support and social integration, contrary to the traditional view of adolescence as a time of crisis and conflict.This study was supported by the Swiss National Foundation (Grant Number 32.26367.89).Received M.D. from University of Berne. Has conducted research on chronic illness (cystic fibrosis), minimal brain dysfunction, and suicide prevention in children.Received Ph.D. from University of Berne. Has done research on coping in cancer and cystic fibrosis.     

Healthy and maladjusted Type A behavior in adolescents

The dimensions of Type A behavior were studied in 990 randomly selected adolescents and their conceptualization was clarified in terms of achievement striving, self-concept, and sense of control. The methods used were the AFMS to evaluate Type A behavior, the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale, and Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory. Achievement striving was assessed using the questionnaire designed for this study. It was revealed that Type A consisted of two independent dimensions, both adding an equal contribution to the total score. One was an impatient, aggressive competitiveness related to a low self-esteem, low self-set achievement standards, and external locus of control. The other Type A exhibited competitiveness related to a sense of responsibility, leadership, social activity, high achievement striving, and high self-esteem. These factors may distinguish maladjusted competitiveness from healthy ambition and suggest that it is important to distinguish risk Type A individuals from Type A's who are potential leaders in society.Received Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her major research interest is psychosomatic medicine.