Gifted Weekly

Are gifted children more anxious than the general populace? Although research has been conducted on this question, the answers are diverse. Three observations included in a recent meta-analysis conducted by researchers in France (Duplenne et al., 2024) provide useful insights for supporting gifted students’ mental health.

1 – Emotional Regulation for the win: Studies suggest that gifted students’ ability to “perceive, use, understand, and regulate their emotions more efficiently than their counterparts” (Duplenne et al., 2024) allows for lower incidences of anxiety (Daros et al., 2021, Alabbasi et al., 2020; Ogurlu, 2021a). Therefore, the more adults can help students develop emotional regulation, the better their mental health prospects in the future.

Suggested Resource: Davidson’s Anxiety and Gifted Children Guide

The higher the intelligence, the more effective the strategies for regulating emotions.

Duplenne et al., 2024

2 – Performance Anxiety is not the issue for identified students: Popular culture perpetuates the idea of the “mad genius” plagued by intellectual performance anxiety (Bergold et al., 2021 and Sanchez et al., 2022). However, Duplenne et al.’s meta-analysis contradicts this assumption. Similarly, identity anxiety is not a great concern for this population. Nonetheless, these findings focus on those who excel academically and are therefore identified for gifted programs. Educators must re-examine identification methods to reach those gifted students who do not fit the gifted mold. These children can be more prone to anxiety as a result of unrecognized high potential to succeed academically.

Suggested Resources: Blog posts Smart, But How? Assessing Non-Academic Intelligence and Identifying What Works: Can We Teach Cross Cultural Talent Recognition? and What Do Schools Mean by Multiple Criteria?

3 – Consider the long-range view: Few studies have been completed on gifted students’ mental health through the years. This meta-analysis suggests that future research should be conducted on students as they age, allowing for greater insight into the effects of age vs. intellectual ability. I would go a step further to recommend gifted program coordinators should track and remain invested in their gifted students’ growth over time. Insights gathered as far as what works and what doesn’t to maximize mental health would benefit both the student and the program.

In addition, few studies to date adopted a longitudinal framework in this field of research. This methodological design would be interesting to understand the difference between age categories observed and also to explain the heterogeneity observed in these populations.

Duplenne et al., 2024

SOURCES

Alabbasi A. M. A., Ayoub A. E. A., Ziegler A. O. (2020). Are gifted students more emotionally intelligent than their non-gifted peers? A meta-analysis. High Ability Studies, 32(2), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/13598139.2020.1770704

Bergold S., Hastall M. R., Steinmayr R. (2021). Do mass media shape stereotypes about intellectually gifted individuals? Two experiments on stigmatization effects from biased newspaper reports. Gifted Child Quarterly, 65(1), 75–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986220969393

Daros A. R., Haefner S. A., Asadi S., Kazi S., Rodak T., Quilty L. C. (2021). A meta-analysis of emotional regulation outcomes in psychological interventions for youth with depression and anxiety. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(10), 1443–1457. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01191-9

Duplenne, L., Bourdin, B., Fernandez, D. N., Blondelle, G., & Aubry, A. (2024). Anxiety and Depression in Gifted Individuals: A Systematic and Meta-Analytic Review. Gifted Child Quarterly, 68(1), 65-83. https://doi.org/10.1177/00169862231208922

Ogurlu U. (2021a). A meta-analytic review of emotional intelligence in gifted individuals: A multilevel analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 171, Article 110503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110503

Sanchez C., Brigaud E., Moliner P., Blanc N. (2022). The social representations of gifted children in childhood professionals and the general adult population in France. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 45(2), 179–199. https://doi.org/10.1177/01623532221085610