Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts: Exploring the Psychological Well-being and Social Inclusion of Gifted Children and Young People

In education there is a long history of identifying children and young people as being  gifted, and in 21st Century Britain pupils ascribed the label 'gifted and talented' are to be found in almost every school.

However, relatively little is known about the social and psychological characteristics of this significant subset of students.

A systematic literature review was conducted to analyse findings regarding the mental health and psychological well-being of gifted students compared to the general population, and whether this relationship has varied over time.

Across 29 studies it was found that on average gifted children experience more positive well-being than their non-gifted counterparts in all aspects, except on measures of 'socialization'.

An empirical investigation into the social acceptability of being labelled as 'gifted and talented' was subsequently designed and undertaken. This represented the first study internationally to examine potential gender and age differences in the social inclusion of gifted pupils.

Sixty participants were recruited from five mainstream non-selective schools, distributed across four groups: primary-aged girls (N = 13), primary-aged boys (15), secondary-aged girls (15) and secondary-aged boys (17).

The Socio-Cognitive Mapping Survey was used as a measure of social acceptance, with further information provided by five additional scales, which included self-, parent- and teacher reports.

It was found that gifted and talented learners experienced the same levels of social inclusion, and less social exclusion, than their non-gifted peers.

Younger gifted girls were significantly more socially included than older gifted girls, and the secondary-aged participants were more likely to be socially excluded than the primary-aged gifted pupils.

A five-factor model was found to explain a substantial proportion of the variance in all gifted learners' perceived social acceptance.

In addition, gifted and talented secondary school students were discovered to report greater satisfaction in all areas of their lives than the primary-aged participants.