Gifted Students' Self-images as a Function of Identification Procedure, Race, and Sex

Abstract

Nearly 1,600 tenth-grade students from 46 high schools in a California metropolitan district completed four self-report affective measures. All subjects had been identified as gifted and placed in California's Mentally Gifted Minor program. The procedure employed to identify most of the subjects was a traditional one based on aptitude test performance. However, 202 subjects were identified as gifted on the basis of nontest criteria. Data related to the subjects' self-images, e.g., self-concept and locus of control, were collected. Analysis of variance on the dependent measures showed no significant main effects for sex or identification procedure, but significant differences among the four racial groups studied, i.e., Anglo-, Asian-, Black-, and Hispanic-Americans.