Social Coping Among Academically Gifted Adolescents in a Residential Setting: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Much of the research on the social coping of students with gifts and talents has relied on a single administration of an instrument while the participants were attending a summer program. This study attempts to understand how attendance at a residential high school (academy) may affect academically gifted students over time. Students in two graduating classes at the academy completed the Social Coping Questionnaire on two (class of 2006) or three (class of 2005) occasions during their 2 years at the academy. Significant differences across approximately the first year at the academy are found for the items denying giftedness (more common after a year at the academy), social interaction (less common after a year at the academy), and peer acceptance (higher after a year at the academy).

Putting the Research to Use: Schools are inherently sccial enterprises. Research has demonstrated that students with gifts and talents often learn coping behaviors to navigate the social milieus of their schools. Because students have agency, they have the capability to modify their social coping strategies based on their perceptions and social goals. This paper sheds light on both the soical coping behaviors of 300 academically gifted students upon entering a residental school for gifted adolescents and how they adapted to the new community over a two-period. The results of this study allow the reader to understand the complexities of school environments as social contexts and how students with gifts and talents cope with them.