Above-level testing is the practice of administering aptitude or academic achievement tests that are designed for typical students in higher grades or older age-groups to gifted or high-achieving students. Although widely accepted in gifted education, above-level testing has not been subject to careful psychometric scrutiny. In this study, I…

Involving more than 1,500 academically gifted students and their parents, this study examined relationships between family environment and social competence of gifted students. Results from an online survey revealed that our gifted students rated their families as cohesive and flexible with high levels of satisfaction and communication among…

What are the characteristics leading teachers to nominate gifted students in Spain? To answer this question, several demographic (i.e., gender, grade) and psychological (i.e., multiple intelligences, emotional intelligence, intellectual aptitude, and divergent thinking) characteristics of 563 secondary students nominated as gifted by their…

The purpose of this Methodological Brief is to present a brief primer on logistic regression, a commonly used technique when modeling dichotomous outcomes. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), logistic regression techniques were used to investigate student-level variables in eighth grade (i.e., enrolled in a…

There have been some behavioral indicators and some types of task performance that suggest greater creativity in students with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). This evidence would appear counterintuitive given that lower working memory (i.e., holding information in mind for novel recombinations) has often been documented in students…

New findings are presented for children in Grades 1 to 9 who qualified their families for a multigenerational family genetics study of dyslexia (impaired word decoding/spelling) who had either superior verbal reasoning ("n" = 33 at or above 1 2/3 standard deviation, superior or better range; 19% of these children) or average verbal…

This study developed and tested a new model of the forced choice dilemma (i.e., the belief held by some intellectually gifted students that they must choose between academic achievement and peer acceptance) that incorporates individual-level cultural orientation variables (i.e., vertical allocentrism and vertical idiocentrism). A survey that had…

Using the off-level test scores of more than 250,000 students who participated in talent search testing from 2000 to 2008, this study examined if previously reported gender differences in students' performances in math versus verbal areas as well as the reported ratios of males and females for specific scoring levels still existed across years.…

Deferential differentiation occurs when the curriculum modification process defers to students' preferred ways of learning rather than relying on teachers' judgments. The preferences of 416 students identified as gifted (grades 3-8) for features of differentiated curriculum recommended for gifted students were compared with those of 230 students…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between gifted adolescents' forms of overexcitabilities and self-concepts. Clusters of adolescents were formed on the basis of their overexcitabilities, and these clusters of adolescents were then compared with regard to their self-concept scores. Gender differences were also examined. The…

This study examined the self-concept and social status of accelerated and nonaccelerated students in their first 2 years of secondary school in the Netherlands. In 357 students from 18 secondary schools, we measured self-concept, sociometric status, and behavior reputations at three times. Accelerated students had more positive self-concepts…

Despite continued efforts by researchers, a gap still exists in our understanding of the psychological, social, and emotional adjustment of gifted students. Historically, research and education of the gifted has focused on cognitive variables, with less attention given to the social and emotional needs of these students. The current study used…

Competitive goal orientations were rated by self, peers, and teachers for 38 gifted- and 38 regular-program, same-sex, friendship dyads (19 female and 19 male) from grades 7 and 8 (N = 152). Gifted dyads were reassessed on friendship quality and stability at the end of the school year and after the summer. Gifted students were more task-oriented…

Inconsistent performance by gifted students has been a source of frustration for both parents and educators for decades. Several studies on gifted under achievement point to a connection between student learning styles and classroom performance.This study examined the learning styles of gifted middle school students, student perceptions of the…

Gifted eighth graders (N=432) in 11 U.S. states participated in a retrospective national study that explored the prevalence and effects of being bullied and being a bully during kindergarten through grade 8. No significant differences were found related to size of city, race/ethnicity, and geographical region in terms of either being bullied or…