Thirty-two author-contributed chapters were selected from 369 papers presented at the 1981 World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children. Authors included psychologists, educators, geneticists, researchers, and sociologists. Papers address five topics (sample subtopics in parentheses): social contexts (parent and family role, gifted adults at work); the meaning of giftedness (the IQ as a measure of intellectual giftedness, psychosocial effects of giftedness, attitudes toward education of gifted students); nonfulfillment of giftedness (case studies of maladjustment, delinquency proneness, personality growth, and residential treatment for bright delinquents); cultural perspectives (Native American Indian gifted children, talented children in the People's Republic of China, provisions for the gifted in the USSR, gifted children in Nigeria, policy questions in developing third world countries, and the efforts of UNICEF); and curricular considerations (role of government and legislative leadership in promoting programs, conceptual curriculum frameworks, enrichment and environment, secondary education, extracurricular mathematics, and a French approach to gifted curriculum. (CL)