How parental viewpoint and personality affect gifted child outcomes

Abstract

A 17-year longitudinal follow-up of 56 American gifted children investigates and gives examples of a variety of social, emotional, and career outcomes for children who are in the same intellectual ranges. Evaluated for 5 Levels of Giftedness ¹ as children, the subjects’ intellectual abilities are compared within and across five ability levels of typical to exceptionally and profoundly gifted. The subjects’ current age range is 22 to 43. Results indicate that it is the parental personality and viewpoint that most significantly make the difference in outcomes. That is, parental actions and advocacy on behalf of their gifted children are a function of their viewpoint and personality preference. Stated simply as one example: for parents who believe—hold the viewpoint that—either the school or their child should make changes in their behaviors, they often end up in recurring battles of the will rather than satisfactory or good results. When parents discover what works most naturally for their child’s ways of learning, they can take positive actions to find an environment that already exists or they can establish an environment that opens up a good “fit” not only in their child’s learning and academic realm, but in the social, emotional, and eventual adult career domains, as well.