How parental viewpoint and personality affect gifted child outcomes

• Published in: Gifted education international Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 80 - 106
• Main Author: Ruf, Deborah L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2021; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Academically Gifted; Adults; Advocacy; Attitudes; Behavior change; Careers; Child Development; Children & youth; Cognitive Ability; Educational Environment; Elementary Secondary Education; Emotional Development; Family Environment; Gifted children; Gifted Education; Individual Characteristics; Institutional Characteristics; Longitudinal studies; Parent Attitudes; Parent Child Relationship; Parent Influence; Parents & parenting; Personality; Personality Measures; Personality Traits; Social Development; Student Needs; Success; Viewpoint; educational fit; Gifted child; parent personality; educational environment; child personality; longitudinal study; 5 levels of gifted; parent viewpoint; MBTI; MMTIC
• ISSN: 0261-4294; 2047-9077; 2407-9077
• DOI: 10.1177/0261429420946072

A 17-year longitudinal follow-up of 56 American gifted children investigates and gives examples of a variety of social, emotional, and career outcomes for children who are in the same intellectual ranges. Evaluated for 5 Levels of Giftedness 1 as children, the subjects’ intellectual abilities are compared within and across five ability levels of typical to exceptionally and profoundly gifted. The subjects’ current age range is 22 to 43. Results indicate that it is the parental personality and viewpoint that most significantly make the difference in outcomes. That is, parental actions and advocacy on behalf of their gifted children are a function of their viewpoint and personality preference. Stated simply as one example: for parents who believe—hold the viewpoint that—either the school or their child should make changes in their behaviors, they often end up in recurring battles of the will rather than satisfactory or good results. When parents discover what works most naturally for their child’s ways of learning, they can take positive actions to find an environment that already exists or they can establish an environment that opens up a good “fit” not only in their child’s learning and academic realm, but in the social, emotional, and eventual adult career domains, as well.