nts, their self-concept is a common variable. Because an individual's self-concept encompasses the thoughts and perceptions about oneself, it is regarded as an important indicator of one's psychological well-being and social adjustment. However, the assessment of the relationship between giftedness and self-concepts has triggered considerable controversy with the emergence of conflicting and inconsistent results in various studies). Essentially, while some research studies have shown that gifted students have more positive self-concepts than their typical peers, other studies have proven the very opposite (Chan, 2002).
In their comparison of 62 gifted and 162 nongifted high school freshmen, Field et al. (1998) administered questionnaires to the participants, which elicited their assessments of their relationships with family and peers, their social support network, family responsibility, self-esteem, happiness and depression. On all of the scales, the gifted subjects rated themselves as highly as or even higher than their gifted participants. For
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