Forty-one students from middle grades, some gifted and some not, some with experience with divorce in their families and some who were not, were administered a series of interviews, produced writing samples, and were given a subtest of the Defining Issues test. All groups saw the family as an important unit for them and its break up a serious matter regardless of whether they had personally experienced divorce. The most commonly reported theme in the stories was self blame, and there was hope that the separated parents would reunite. The gifted students gave longer stories and were able to take the perspective of adults as well as children in their stories. The gifted students also showed a stronger desire to want to understand the reasons for the dissolution of the marriage and, as might be expected, showed a more advanced level of moral reasoning.
Additional variance, however, was contributed by the socioeconomic status of the family and the particular school attended making these findings merely suggestive and calling for more detailed investigation into the special coping skills against crisis demonstrated by gifted students.
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