Author

Anne Hall

Date of Award

5-1988

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. James Polyson

Second Advisor

Dr. Joanne Preston

Third Advisor

Fr. James Tromater

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between the number of years in which a child has been labeled as gifted and family members' perceptions of their family's social environment. Second, possible differences between gifted childrens' and siblings' perceptions of their family's environment were investigated. A significant negative relationship was found between the number of years of labeling time and mothers' perceived level of cohesion, organization and control in the family environment. A significant positive relationship was found between the number of years in which the gifted child had been labeled and the gifted child's growing orientation to achievement and with unlabeled siblings' perceptions of independence in the family environment. These results suggest that families in which there are both gifted and unlabeled children may experience significant stress and that mothers feel this stress more acutely than fathers. Also, it appears that the gifted label does not lead unlabeled siblings to perceive their family environments in a substantially different way from identified gifted children in the family.

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