Families of Gifted Children.

Abstract

Families of gifted children are investigated from family systems and psychodynamic perspectives, with emphasis on the significance of the "gifted" label for the parent-child relationship. Forty-two families with firstborn and secondborn children between the ages of 6 and 11 are selected from school records. In 22 of the families one or both children attended gifted school programs. In 12 of these families the younger sibling is not placed in a gifted program. The remaining 20 families comprise of normal control group in which both children attended regular school programs. Families in each group are of comparable socioeconomic status. The assessment methods used are: Family Environment Scale; Children's Personality Questionnaire; conjoint and individual parent interviews; and three family interaction tasks. Interview data are coded by two clinical judges blind to group membership of the families and trained to a criterion of 80% agreement on each scale. The data analysis supports the conclusion that parents of gifted children are especially devoted to their children's intellectual and social development. Also, both parents who subjectively perceive their child as gifted differ from parents who do not perceive their child as gifted in measures of pride and closeness in the parent-child relationship. These differences exist even between parents (usually mothers) who perceive their child as gifted and their spouses (usually fathers) who do not perceive their child as gifted. Differences also exist in parent's relationships with a child perceived as gifted and a sibling not perceived as gifted. These differences could not be attributed to parent sex or the child's birth order. The "not-gifted" sibling of the gifted child may have a less favorable status in the family than the gifted child, as indicated by family task and parent interview measures. Also, the not gifted sibling of the gifted child is less well-adjusted than children whose siblings are also not-gifted according to the CPQ. The hypothesis of "family idealization" of gifted children as a theoretical counterpart of "family scapegoating" of emotionally disturbed children is presented.