Focusing on the social and emotional characteristics of gifted students in general, and underachievers in particular, the sixteen articles in this ready-reference also provide an introduction to appropriate counseling methods for the gifted. Key features include: (1) Expert Sidney M. Moon's comprehensive analysis of some of the most influential research on underachievement, social/emotional issues, and counseling approaches for the gifted; (2) Effective educational and personal interventions designed to reverse underachievement; and (3) Recommendations for addressing the specialized and differentiated counseling needs of gifted students with the guidance and insight of the field's top authorities, educators will learn how to intervene more effectively with high-ability individuals experiencing social/emotional difficulties, and will discover how they can help all gifted students achieve optimal social, emotional, and personal development. The ERGE Series: The National Association for Gifted Children series Essential Readings in Gifted Education is a 12-volume collection of seminal articles from "Gifted Child Quarterly." Put the knowledge and power of more than 25 years of research on giftedness and talent into your hands with the leading theories, studies, and findings the experts in the field have to offer. Following a series introduction (Sally M. Reis), and an introduction to "Social/Emotional Issues, Underachievement, and Counseling of Gifted and Talented Students" (Sidney M. Moon), this book is divided into three parts and 16 chapters. Part I, Social and Emotional Issues, presents: (1) The Social and Emotional Adjustment of Young, Intellectually-Gifted Children (Elyse Brauch Lehman and Carol J. Erdwins); (2) Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Adjustment of Accelerated Students, Students in Gifted Classes, and Regular Students in Eighth Grade (Michael F. Sayler and William K. Brookshire); (3) Depression and Suicidal Ideation among Academically Gifted Adolescents (Jean A. Baker); (4) High Ability Students Who Are Unpopular with Their Peers (Dewey G. Cornell); (5) Predictors of Loneliness in the Gifted Adolescent (Charles F. Kaiser and David J. Berndt); (6) Expanding Lazarus and Folkman's Paradigm to the Social and Emotional Adjustment of Gifted Children and Adolescents (SEAM) (Claudia J. Sowa and Kathleen M. May); (7) A "Rag Quilt": Social Relationships among Students in a Special High School (Laurence J. Coleman); and (8) Family Factors Associated with High Academic Competence in Former Head Start Children at Third Grade (Nancy M. Robinson, Robin Gaines Lanzi, Richard A. Weinberg, Sharon Landesman Ramey, and Craig T. Ramey). Part II, Underachievement, continues with: (9) Academic Underachievement among the Gifted: Students' Perceptions of Factors that Reverse the Pattern (Linda J. Emerick); (10) A Comparison of Gifted Underachievers and Gifted High Achievers (Nicholas Colangelo, Barbara Kerr, Paula Christensen, and James Maxey); (11) Reversing Underachievement: Creative Productivity as a Systematic Intervention (Susan Baum, Joseph S. Renzulli, and Thomas P. Hebert); (12) Mentors for Gifted Underachieving Males: Developing Potential and Realizing Promise (Thomas P. Hebert and F. Richard Olenchak); and (13) The Underachievement of Gifted Students: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go? (Sally M. Reis and D. Betsy McCoach). Part III, Counseling, concludes with: (14) A Functional Model for Counseling Parents of Gifted Students (David F. Dettmann and Nicholas Colangelo); (15) Counseling Gifted Adolescents: A Curriculum Model for Students, Parents, and Professionals (Thomas M. Buescher) and (16) Specialized Counseling Services for Gifted Youth and Their Families: A Needs Assessment (Sidney M. Moon, Kevin R. Kelly, and John F. Feldhusen). An index is also included.