Multidimensional perfectionism in middle school age gifted students: A comparison to peers from the general cohort

The researchers designed this study to investigate levels of multidimensional perfectionism in identified gifted middle school students and a group of their peers from the general cohort. Gifted students (N = 83) were compared with the general cohort (N = 112) from a Southeastern rural middle school (grades 6 through 8). One‐way analyses of variance were used to determine whether gifted and general cohort students differed on measures of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism. Results revealed that gifted students had significantly higher standards scores, a measure of adaptive perfectionism, and significantly lower discrepancy scores, a measure of maladaptive perfectionism. These results suggest that gifted students are more perfectionistic (i.e., hold higher personal standards) than general cohort students. However, the results do not support the contention that gifted students experience distress or maladjustment from their higher levels of perfectionism (e.g., Maxwell, 1995).     

The role and responsibilities of the gifted program coordinator

Research on career development and counseling for gifted and talented students primarily has focused on the recurring themes of multipotentiality, career needs of females, perfectionism, and early cognitive and vocational maturity. A review of current literature, however, indicates that new perspectives on traditional concepts are needed in order to provide appropriate and adequate career counseling to all gifted and talented students. This article gives an overview of the existing issues, identifies areas for further research, and recommends an agenda for change in the nature of career counseling for the gifted and talented.     

Multidimensional Perfectionism,Depression, and Satisfaction With Life: Differences Among Perfectionists and Tests of a Stress‐Mediation Model

This study examined the relationship between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, stress, depression, and satisfaction with life in a sample of undergraduate women. The authors found that maladaptive perfectionists had lower satisfaction with life and higher stress and depression scores compared with adaptive perfectionists. Results also indicated that stress mediated the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depression and between both maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism and satisfaction with life. Implications for college counselors are discussed.     

Case studies of gifted kindergarten children: Profiles of promise

Early life experiences can powerfully impact attitudes toward learning and later achievements in education. The chances for optimal development of children with special needs, including the gifted and talented, can be enhanced with identification and intervention at an early age. Current research on the young gifted has overlooked the delineation of developmental characteristics and specific educational experiences applicable to this population. In an effort to bridge this gap in the literature, this paper will report on investigations into the lives of five gifted kindergarten students utilizing a case study methodology, which yielded themes relating to intellectual, achievement, social, affective, physical, aesthetic and creative domains.     

Research on perfectionism and achievement motivation: implications for gifted students

Perfectionism has been associated with a rigid adherence to impossibly high standards, an irrational importance on the attainment of these standards, and a tendency to overgeneralize failures. Researchers have primarily focused on how perfectionism predicts psychological adjustment; yet, recent research also indicates that perfectionism impacts students' achievement motivation. In this article, research on the relationship between perfectionism and achievement motivation in non‐gifted students is reviewed. Conclusions about perfectionism and achievement motivation in non‐gifted students will highlight directions for future research and implications for enhancing the achievement motivation of gifted students with perfectionism. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Perfectionism and Goal Orientations Among Chinese Gifted Students in Hong Kong

Positive and negative perfectionism as well as four goal orientations were assessed in a sample of 315 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. These students tended to endorse positive perfectionism more than negative perfectionism and prefer learning and social goals over performance and avoidance goals. Learning and social goal orientations emerged as significant predictors in the prediction of positive perfectionism, whereas performance and avoidance goal orientations emerged as significant predictors for negative perfectionism. Implications of the findings for promoting healthy strivings for excellence through setting different goals are discussed.     

A NEGLECTED COMPONENT OF NURTURING GIFTEDNESS: AFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT

Research on giftedness and programs for fostering its development often neglect the affective component: the social, emotional and personal components which release (or block) a person's abilities. One problem of gifted children is that their accelerated intellectual development may outstrip affective development. Nonetheless, available research findings paint a positive picture of the social‐emotional characteristics of such children. Among other things they tend to be highly motivated, have a positive self‐concept and be particularly sensitive to social and ethical issues. This suggests that designers of learning experiences should pay greater attention to the affective aspects of instruction. All subject areas offer opportunities for stressing the affective dimension, science as much as literature. This involves creating a classroom climate which offers an “invitational” environment. The highly developed social values of gifted children suggest that they can be encouraged to apply their talents to the solution of the myriad problems with which contemporary society is afflicted.     

Socioaffective Issues and Concerns Among Gifted Filipino Children

There is a dearth of information regarding the socioemotional realities of gifted children from ethnically diverse backgrounds, which this research attempts to address. Multiple semistructured narrative interviews were conducted with 22 intellectually superior children aged 4–9 years and with their parents. Manifestations of perfectionism, hypersensitivities, and overexcitabilities were evident among the Filipino gifted children. The implications of such manifestations of heightened sensitivities for educators and diagnosticians were discussed. Cross-cultural contrasts were likewise discussed to demonstrate whether predominant socioaffective traits, characteristics, and issues in the West are likewise evident among gifted children from a culturally different background like the Philippines.     

Labels of giftedness and gender-typicality: Effects on adults' judgments of children's traits

The study examines the impressions adults form of children as a function of labels of giftedness and gender-typicality. Participants read about a child described as male/female, “gifted”/“average,” and gender-typical/gender-atypical in academic interests; they then responded on 30 adjective scales. Compared with children labeled “average,” children labeled “gifted” are seen as closer to odd than to fits in well. Gender-atypical boys were considered more odd and gender-atypical girls were rated less odd than were gender-typical children, regardless of giftedness. There was no additive negative effect of being both gifted and gender-atypical. Basically, participants described gifted and gender-atypical children differently; some overlap exists between adjectives used to describe these children (e.g., odd). Giftedness and gender-atypicality are related but separate concepts, each with many facets. The interrelationships and diversity of the two concepts must be assessed when individuals consider the impression that gifted or gender-atypical children make on others.     

Resilience and coping: Implications for gifted children and youth at risk

The large body of literature on resilience and coping gives promise to finding specific ways in which teachers, counselors, and schools can enhance success among gifted and talented children and youth placed at risk. While high intelligence is not a requirement for resilient outcomes, cognitive ability appears to be a supporting factor, especially as it relates to problem solving and coping. To the extent that low‐income and culturally diverse children and youth have more experience overcoming adversity, they may possess a greater range of and flexibility in coping strategies that can be shared with others. This article summarizes findings from resilience literature relevant to the development of children and adolescents and derives specific strategies for enhancing outcomes for gifted children and youth most at risk for encountering adversity.     

Perfectionism in Gifted High-School Students: Responses to Academic Challenge

Through a qualitative interview design, this study investigated how participation in a rigorous academic environment may influence gifted students who demonstrate high levels of perfectionism. The study also examined how their responses to a rigorous academic and residential environment may differ according to the type of perfectionism. Findings indicated that some socially prescribed perfectionists reported an increase in perfectionism, whereas some self-oriented perfectionists reported an increase followed by a decrease in their perfectionism. Overall, the majority of the participants, regardless of their type of perfectionism, indicated a decrease in their perfectionism as a result of their new academic environment. Reactions to experiencing imperfections ranged from calm to guilt or even anger, depending on the type of perfectionism. Implications for working with gifted students who show high levels of perfectionism are discussed.     

Effects of math anxiety and perfectionism on timed versus untimed math testing in mathematically gifted sixth graders

This study was designed to examine the effects of math anxiety and perfectionism on math performance, under timed testing conditions, among mathematically gifted sixth graders. We found that participants had worse math performance during timed versus untimed testing, but this difference was statistically significant only when the timed condition preceded the untimed condition. We also found that children with higher levels of either math anxiety or perfectionism had a smaller performance discrepancy during timed versus untimed testing, relative to children with lower levels of math anxiety or perfectionism. There were no statistically significant gender differences in overall test performance, nor in levels of math anxiety or perfectionism; however, the difference between performance on timed and untimed math testing was statistically significant for girls, but not for boys. Implications for educators are discussed.     

Perfectionism and foreign language achievement: The mediating role of emotions and achievement goals

The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of perfectionism in the second/foreign language (L2) learning context. To this end, we investigated the possible links between perfectionism, emotions, achievement goals, and L2 achievement. A total number of 2008 secondary school students completed the relevant questionnaires. First, confirmatory factor analysis was performed to assure the construct validity of the questionnaires. Then, separate structural equation models were conducted to examine the relations among variables. Results indicated that adaptive perfectionism was directly related to positive emotions, while the opposite pattern was found for maladaptive perfectionism. Moreover, only adaptive perfectionism was related to mastery goals, and both adaptive and maladaptive perfectionisms were related to performance-approach goals and performance-avoidance goals. Maladaptive perfectionism dimensions were negatively related to L2 achievement, while one dimension of adaptive perfectionism had positive relation and another one had negative relation with L2 achievement. Finally, mediation analysis was performed and results showed that only negative emotions and only mastery goals could mediate the relation between perfectionism dimensions and L2 achievement.     

Psychosocial Aspects of the Development of Gifted Underachievers: Review and Implications

Gifted underachievers are children who display a discrepancy between expected high achievement and actual performance. Focussing on gifted children with a long‐standing pattern of underachievement not explicable in terms of learning disability, this paper adopts a developmental perspective to the problem of gifted underachievement. Literature is reviewed on the affective development of gifted underachievers and the environmental factors which may foster or diminish success in school. It is argued that cognitive and affective variables do not operate independently and should not be considered in isolation from the environmental context of development. Further, gifted underachievers are not a homogeneous group, and some influences on achievement are situation‐specific and highly variable. Finally, implications for intervention are discussed in light of the need to view children's development not as a dichotomy of cognitive and affective change but holistically, as a complex interaction of child and environment.     

Books in brief

This investigation examines the use of the MPAA television advisory ratings in the decision‐making of parents of intellectually gifted children and explores the manner by which ratings information is incorporated into rules and regulations about television in the home. It comes on the heels of published reports suggesting the general inadequacy and counter productivity of the age‐based ratings. In comparison to parents of non‐gifted children, parents of gifted children were more likely to utilize TV ratings information in the mediation of their children's televiewing. They tended to employ a highly inductive (communication‐oriented) style of child rearing and a highly evaluative (discussion‐based) method of TV mediation, tended to believe that television can have significant positive and/or negative effects on children, and were more concerned with cognitive‐ and affective‐level effects. The possible ramifications of these findings with regard to the new content‐driven ratings campaign and forthcoming V‐chip technology are discussed.     

Factors related to Taiwanese adolescents' academic procrastination,time management,and perfectionism

There is a shortage of studies that explore adolescents' academic procrastination. The author hence attempted to examine the mechanisms determining Taiwanese adolescent students' perfectionistic tendencies, time management, and academic procrastination. A total of 405 eighth-grade Taiwanese students completed a self-reported survey assessing their perceptions of classroom structure, parental expectations and criticism, perfectionistic tendencies, time management, and academic procrastination. Findings of regression analyses indicated that parental expectations and criticism were the key predictors of students' adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism. Students' perceptions of classroom structure also positively predicted their adaptive perfectionism. Moreover, results of hierarchical regressions suggested that perceived classroom structure, parental expectations and criticism, as well as adaptive perfectionism all emerged as predictors of time management. With regard to procrastination on homework and examination preparation, parental expectations and adaptive perfectionism were negative predictors, whereas parental criticism and maladaptive perfectionism were positive predictors. Also, time management negatively predicted academic procrastination.     

Case studies of gifted kindergarten children part II: The parents and teachers

Early life experiences can powerfully impact attitudes toward learning and later achievements in education. The chances for optimal development of children with special needs, including the gifted and talented, can be enhanced with identification and intervention at an early age. This paper reports on investigations into the lives of five gifted kindergarten students utilizing a case‐study methodology, which yielded themes relating to intellectual, achievement, social, affective, physical, aesthetic, and creative domains (discussed in Part I, published in Roeper Review, volume 26, pp. 192‐207). This paper, Part II, will discuss parental and teacher influences.     

Self-Compassion as a Mediator of Maladaptive Perfectionism and Depressive Symptoms in College Students

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationships among maladaptive perfectionism, self-compassion, and depressive symptoms in college students. It was hypothesized that self-compassion would mediate the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depressive symptoms, with maladaptive perfectionism related to lower levels of self-compassion, and lower levels of self-compassion related to greater endorsement of depressive symptoms. Results supported partial mediation, indicating that self-compassion partially accounts for the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depressive symptoms. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

超常儿童研究的现状与动态

通过对历届世界超常（天才）儿童会议资料的回顾和对第十一届世界超常（天才）会议论文的分析，我们可以发现：（1）在超常儿童研究领域，对超常儿童的教育和进行教学改革一直是人们关心的重点；（2）对超常儿童的创造力和成就的研究越来越受到研究者的关注；（3）一些新的领域将随着对超常儿童本质特征的探讨而越来越变得受人注意，如超常儿童神经心理学的研究，虽然提交的论文数量比例很小，但引起了与会者的极大兴趣；（4）我国的超常儿童研究，近二十年来已取得了可喜的进展，但与国际水平相比，仍有相当的差距。     

Altruism, aggression, and social interactions in young children with a manic-depressive parent

This is an exploratory study of the emotional and social functioning of young children with a manic-depressive parent. Seminaturalistic observations and experimental manipulations of the affective environment were used to assess 2-year-old children's regulation of emotion, as well as their aggression, altruism, and affiliative interactions. Children with a bipolar parent sometimes showed heightened distress and preoccupation with the conflicts and suffering of others, especially disturbances in adults. These children had difficulty in maintaining friendly social interactions, in sharing, and in helping their playmates. They also had difficulty modulating hostile impulses; they showed more maladaptive patterns of aggression toward peers and adults. These interpersonal and emotional problems of offspring of manic-depressives were often similar to those problems of manic-depressives that have been implicated in the clinical literature as possibly associated with the transmission of the disorder. This apparent congruence of findings obtained from different disciplines employing very different research strategies and studying people of different ages, attests to the utility of an explicit interdisciplinary approach in the area of developmental psychopathology.