Abstract
It was hypothesized that teachers would perceive gifted education students to be more depressed and anxious compared to the general education students. Participants included educators of all subjects from Kindergarten-12th grade from two school districts in the Northeast. One hundred one (101) teachers read a vignette depicting either a gifted or a general education student and they completed a survey rating the student on symptoms of depression and anxiety. To test the hypothesis, a t-test was used to examine the data found.
Introduction
Gifted students are traditionally considered to excel in school, so their needs often go overlooked. However, recent trends have begun to draw awareness to the unique social and emotional needs experienced by gifted students. For example, attention has been given to a propensity for depressive and anxious symptoms in gifted students. There have been various claims that gifted students are more anxious and depressed than general education students .(Tasca,I. Et.al., 2022) Studies show that due to academic and mental stressors, gifted students have more pressure to succeed in school (Zeidner, M., 2021). It has also been said that general education students have a higher life satisfaction level than gifted students. (Fouladchang et al., 2009)
Educators undertake a significant role in helping children mentally towards obtaining a life that they can be proud of. They evaluate the psychological wellbeing and capability of students to allow them the proper education setting. As a result, educators’ view of the learning ability of students remains essential in satisfying the developmental and learning needs of young individuals.
Risk Factors Impacting Gifted Students
Students who are gifted, like all students, bring their own unique strengths and challenges. While these students tend to thrive in some areas, there are some risk factors that tend to be common among this group of students. These factors may encompass those that can be difficult to manage such as: social factors which are derived from the learner’s society and factors that are personal which are associated with the student himself. There could also be overlapping of factors which could include the status of the learner socioeconomically such as his household income. This factor may play a role in the development of the student. A student’s race and ethnicity may also play an important role. Research may also show that minority students can usually be overlooked in being assessed as gifted. As a result, this may affect their chance of receiving education that would pave the way to their abilities being brought to their utmost development. Another risk factor that can affect gifted learners would be their interactions with their peers. There could be a detrimental effect in the classrooms of students with friends that hinder them from looking intelligent. This factor again may lead to those students who are gifted not being able to achieve their ultimate potential.
Outcomes For Gifted Students
Hollingworth (1942) reported that, in her longitudinal study of profoundly gifted young people, the most successful interventions occurred when the children were identified earlier, rather than later, in their elementary schooling and were either accelerated or placed in a class with other gifted children. She claimed that it was between the ages of 4 and 9 that the social difficulties experienced by children with IQs of 160+ were most acute. The present study mirrors Hollingworth’s (1942) findings. The seeds of what happened in later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood have been shown in the first 3 years of school. Many of the young people in this study who experienced social rejection in these early years deliberately underachieved for peer acceptance through much of their school career. Research has shown that there is a tiny impact on academic achievements in high school, in contrast to the abundance of educational resources enjoyed by gifted children participants (GCP). In the longer run, the study finds meaningful effects of GCP on higher education attainment. GCP participants study more math, computer, and physical sciences but engage less in engineering programs. The net effect on STEM degrees is, therefore, zero. However, a much higher share of GCP participants graduated with two STEM majors. This evidence suggests that GCP enhances the impact of “multipotentiality,” which characterizes many gifted adolescents. The effect on getting a Ph.D. is positive, too. Lastly, we find no effect of GCP on employment and earnings. We also have not found that GCP participants work more than other equally talented children in the knowledge economy. These results are very similar for female and male gifted children.
Casino-Garcia et. Al. (2021), presented a study done to determine the incidence of cases of depression found in both normal intelligence and gifted learners. Regression methods were used by investigators to evaluate data. Based on the correlation between the incidence of cases of anxiety and depression between gifted and normal intelligence students, it was shown that there were more cases of depression among the talented learners compared to those with normal intelligence.
Guthrie (2019) similarly determined that gifted learners are more prone to depression. This research compared the behavior assessment scores of both the gifted and intellectually normal children.
Lein (2021) further makes use of ANOVA to investigate research data to determine stress and depression cases among both children and their parents in the home environment. The male participants were noted to have a statistical significance by indicating higher depression levels than females.
Papadopoulos (2019) utilized ANOVA analysis to show gender factors that may affect the behavior of children. The study showed a higher level of peer influence among girls compared to the boys. The social behaviors manifested by girls were shown to be more prevalent than the boys (Tasca, et.al, 2022).
Poley-Nicpon (2021) came up with a correlation analysis between the scores of two randomly sampled groups each composed of male and female participants with the intention of pointing out the role of the environment in depression occurrence. The results seem to indicate that both group I and group II show an association between cases of depression and factors in the environment,
Another study done by Yaman and Sokmez (2020) explored the relationship between depression and the self-esteem of children who are gifted. They studied 10 girls and 13 boys belonging to the age bracket of 9-13 years old. Using a correlation analysis of the gifted and students with normal intelligence, the researchers found that students with low self-esteem as well as attributes of academic and total esteem attributes seem to project high cases of depression (Yaman and Sokmez, 2020). The regression analysis of self-esteem factors to depressive conditions, may suggest that self-esteem may be an important factor affecting depression in children.
Based on the presented literature review, it can be noted that correlation regression tools,
T-test, and ANOVA all seem effective in determining the perception of teachers when it comes
to assessing the depression and anxiety of gifted students. T-test, correlation tools, and ANOVA
showcased the relationship along with the statistical significance between multiple variables of
different study groups. In contrast, the regression analysis is only appropriate in comparing the
association between the independent variables and the factors that caused them. The application
of ANOVA, T-test, and correlation techniques in the analysis of research findings may seem
more appropriate in coming up with the predictions related to the proposed study variables. It
also may seem that these previous studies have not been really able to assign these participants
(gifted or nongifted) to groups randomly.
Social and Emotional Functioning of Gifted Students
For the purpose of our paper, it would be best to define what “gifted” really means. Being gifted is part of an individual’s identity and, as such, does not only apply to academic performance. In education, there seems to be a dependence on labels in order to provide the necessary services needed by each child to succeed in the academic environment and eventually in life. Children can be classified as either being “Neurotypical” or “Neurodiverse”. “Giftedness” can be considered a form of “Neurodiversity” (Matthews, 2021). Determining whether a child is gifted or neurotypical depends on “observation, performance, and assessment tools” done on the person, and all of these things can be based on a number of checklists and various evaluation tests that may change or be revised. All those factors constantly get revised depending on the present perception of “gifted characteristics” (Duncan, Goodwin, et. al., 2018).
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