Everyday Stressors of Academically Gifted Adolescents

Abstract

This study evaluated everyday “hassles” and other stressors experienced by academically gifted, exceptionally academically gifted, and academically average adolescents. The results suggest that gifted and non-gifted adolescents experienced similar levels and types of everyday stressors. However, exceptional and to some degree gifted girls endorsed more perfectionistic tendencies than did their average peers. The need for affective education and psychosocial interventions for gifted students in schools is discussed. Adolescence is a time of increased stress for all youth. Educators of the gifted have had a long and enduring concern about the special stressors and pressures affecting gifted adolescents (e.g., Hollingworth, 1942; Seeley, 1993). Although gifted students are often posited to have strong psychosocial characteristics (e.g., Clark, 1988), we also have documentation that giftedness can generate stress and conflict for some students (e.g., Whitmore, 1980). Although we might expect high levels of stress from gifted students experiencing psychosocial or educational difficulties (i.e., underachieving gifted students), we have little normative information about problems and strains experienced by “typical” gifted adolescents. This study focused on specific stressors endorsed by academically gifted adolescents and compared them to those endorsed by their peers of average academic ability.