Childhood Giftedness and Adulthood Genius

Abstract

Although the association between giftedness and genius has been the subject of several retrospective, longitudinal, and historiometric studies, this research concentrated on majority-culture samples. In the current study, Cox's (1926) findings regarding 301 geniuses were replicated on a sample of 291 eminent African Americans. Relative genius was measured by two archival eminence measures (majority White and minority Black culture) and by scores on the Creative Achievement Scale (Ludwig, 1992). Giftedness was assessed by raters blind to the identity of the individuals being evaluated. Control variables were defined for gender, year of birth, status as a living contemporary, and 18 domains of achievement. Multiple regression analyses indicated that adulthood eminence and creative achievement are positively correlated with early giftedness, with an effect size comparable to that found in the Cox study. Furthermore, this association was not moderated by gender, birth year, or most of the remaining variables.

Putting Research to Use: The study provides support for a basic tenet of most gifted and talented programs, namely, that exceptional giftedness in childhood and adolescence is associated with adulthood achievements. Accordingly, education programs designed for these select populations can be legitimately viewed as an investment in the nation's future. The young talents of today are indeed likely to become the high achievers of tomorrow. Furthermore, this developmental continuity is found not just for youths who come from majority-culture backgrounds; the same forecast holds for those who come from minority-culture environments—African Americans in the case of the present study. Moreover, the degree to which childhood giftedness predicts adulthood success is the same for both majority and minority cultures. The longitudinal correspondence also stays the same for both males and females and for the diverse domains of achievement, whether creativity, leadership, entertainment, or sports.

However, the long-term connection between early gifts and later achievements presumes a distinct manner of identifying and assessing giftedness. In particular, giftedness must not be evaluated according to a “one-size-fits-all” procedure. On the contrary, the magnitude of giftedness should be assessed according to the occurrence of precocious behaviors that are to a certain extent specific to a given culture and achievement domain. It is for this reason that the 291 African Americans in this study could attain distinction in a remarkable diversity of domains, including domains more characteristic of the minority culture—from gospel and soul musicians to civil rights activists and Black nationalists. This heterogeneity stands in stark contrast to what would have happened if giftedness had been defined in terms of performance on a standard intelligence test.