Parenting Styles and Adjustment in Gifted Children

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between parenting styles and the psychosocial adjustment of 48 children aged 7 to 11 years, each of whom had been identified as gifted on the basis of a score of 130 or above on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition. Parenting styles and child psychosocial adjustment were measured using self-report questionnaires. Nineteen of the 48 gifted children in the sample (39.6%) were described by their parents as having peer social problems, descriptions that were not consistent with results obtained from the children and their teachers. Mothers also reported more child conduct problems than did the teachers. No associations were found between parenting styles and social problems with peers. Although the findings supported existing research on fathers’ parenting styles, some of the relationships between mothers’ parenting style and gifted child outcomes were not consistent with previous studies on parenting styles.