Revision of the Social Coping Questionnaire: Replication and Extension of Previous Findings

Abstract

Research into the psychosocial experiences of gifted adolescents indicates that they believe others see them as “different,” and this perception may interfere with social interaction. Some authors have described the experience of being identified as gifted in school as socially stigmatizing. The few studies that have investigated how gifted adolescents cope with this stigma suggest that they use a variety of methods to control the information others have about them. The Social Coping Questionnaire (SCQ) was designed to measure such strategies. The current study presents an expansion of the SCQ and supports previous findings indicating that the social coping strategies used by gifted adolescents are identifiable and measurable. Factor analysis of the revised SCQ produced five social coping factors: denial of giftedness, emphasis on popularity, peer acceptance, social interaction, and hiding giftedness. Gender differences suggest that females are more likely than males to deny their abilities and report high levels of interpersonal activity.