EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES OF HIGHLY GIFTED AND ‘NORMAL’ SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

About 9,000 West German students representing the whole range of academic aptitude were examined at the beginning of their 13th school year. A general scholastic aptitude test was administered, and school marks and information on the pupils’ extracurricular interests and activities recorded. A group of highly gifted students was defined in terms of exceptional performance both in school and on the scholastic aptitude test. The extracurricular activities of this group were compared with those of the representative group. The popular hypothesis that superior cognitive giftedness and outstanding achievement in school go with an ‘impoverishment’ of extracurricular activities was not supported: In most areas a larger percentage of the highly gifted than of the reference group were actively involved. Furthermore, the range of individual activities was somewhat broader among the top students than among the representative group.