The Social-Emotional Health of Gifted Children: An Interview with Psychologist Maureen Neihart, Psy.D

Paula: What are the major beliefs out there about the social-emotional or psychological health of gifted children?

Maureen: One of the beliefs is that gifted kids are at risk for negative outcomes. People also believe that gifted kids have higher rates of depression, are at greater risk for suicide, delinquency, and under-achievement, and that they're vulnerable to certain kinds of psychological and educational problems as a result of their personality characteristics and their high levels of intensity. That's one view. The other view is that gifted kids are in fact better adjusted than the average kid-- because they have high intelligence, and they're creative, and they can problem solve well. Even though gifted children may face unusual kinds of stressors or challenges in their life, they're able to cope very well and are better adjusted with fewer psychological problems than the average kid. We're getting much more sophisticated in the last five years in particular, in our understanding of the emotional health and social competence of gifted kids, and we're now seeing them as a much more diverse group. For example, one of the things that we're learning is that domain of ability, or talent area, seems to be related to psychosocial functioning. We're seeing differences in perceptions of social competence in verbally gifted versus mathematically gifted kids, for example.

Paula: Now, given that those are the two sets of beliefs that exist out there, what does the research support or not support regarding those beliefs?

Maureen: Interestingly, there is some empirical research support for both views, but they come from studies that looked at different kinds of populations. That's why it's so tough to get some resolution on the social-emotional or psychological functioning of gifted children. There are numerous empirical studies that were done with academically or intellectually gifted kids that found that on measures of both global adjustment and specific factors related to adjustment like anxiety, depression, suicide, and social functioning, gifted kids were at least as well-adjusted as average kids, and in some cases, they showed indications of being better adjusted. For example, there are a couple of studies with hundreds or thousands of gifted students that found significantly lower levels of anxiety in the gifted. Now critics will say that those studies are biased because the samples were biased by teacher selection, and that those gifted kids are not representing the real diverse population of gifted students. But we also have studies, usually more from a clinical perspective, that have found some evidence for greater vulnerability among gifted people. For example, there are a couple of studies that found an over-representation of high intellectual ability among people referred for treatments for eating disorders. You also have compelling evidence from many studies that persons who pursue creative high achievement in the visual arts and writing in particular, not in science interestingly, not in dance, not in music, but in visual arts or writing, have a significantly higher incidence of mood disorders (depression, bipolar disorder for example) and also suicide. Anecdotally, you tend to find that gifted adolescents are over-represented in some residential treatment populations. That has been my personal experience and that of several of my colleagues who are working in clinical settings. Now this could be a result of a sampling bias. That is, maybe people who have more money are referring their kids to such facilities. But, in my own experience, the kids I have seen were actually poorer than average. A colleague of mine has speculated that the gifted kids who are in treatment are highly creative. That would be consistent with the notion that the pursuit of high creative achievement makes you psychologically vulnerable. But nobody has data about this for adolescents, only adults.

Paula: And why would it make you psychologically vulnerable to pursue highly creative activities? Is it because it's difficult path to take in terms of society's acceptance and expectations?

Maureen: Some of the ideas about it are that it has to do with the cognitive processes involved in writing and the visual arts, as opposed to those involved in doing science or mathematics. Researchers speculate that the kind of cognitive tasks that are involved in the pursuit of some creative areas are distinctly different from that involved in others, and may be similar to the cognitive processes of manic states—in terms of the fluency and fluidity of ideas and the intensity of the experience. Others suggest that there are also similarities between the cognitive processes of people who are psychotic and those of people who are highly creative. Another idea is that it has to do with solitude and the amount of reflection and introspection that you have to be able to tolerate or sustain in order to really accomplish high achievement in those particular domains.

Paula: Does that make you vulnerable, that solitude?

Maureen: People argue either way. Some people say that yes, that solitude would make you more vulnerable. For example, social isolation in adolescence is a particularly strong correlate of depression. If you're a highly creative adolescent, in order to get a lot of writing done, you need to spend a lot of time alone. You are going to have more experience of social isolation than the average adolescent does, and that's generally not good for your mental health. But many creatively gifted adolescents don’t see the solitude as a negative experience.

Paula: Do you believe that gifted children have unique social, emotional or psychological characteristics?

Maureen: I do. I think intensity is a unique psychological characteristic. I think perfectionism as defined by the pursuit of high standards or an ideal is more common among gifted kids than it is among the average kids. I'm not convinced yet about introversion. I know that some people think gifted kids are more introverted than average, but I haven't really seen that. I haven't taken a good look at that data myself yet, so I don't know about that issue. I would say that gifted children have advanced moral judgment or advanced moral reasoning, and that would contribute to their unusually developed sense of justice and their interest in fair play.

Paula: Do you think these make them more vulnerable to mental health problems?

Maureen: No. I tend to be more persuaded that high ability persons are probably better adjusted or more resilient, if you will. If you look at the risk and resiliency literature, it suggests that gifted kids, particularly the intellectually gifted, would have better adjustment than average individuals because they share some of the characteristics of resilient people, like problem solving ability and the ability to plan ahead. High intelligence is considered a protective factor for children in the resilience literature—it protects them from adversity. We also know that just because someone is exposed to stress doesn't mean that they're going to experience negative outcomes. Your experience is not the best predictor. It's the interpretation that you put on that experience that's a better predictor.

Paula: Can you talk a little bit about stress? People view it as a totally negative thing. I read recently that some psychologists are trying to ascertain whether it has some positive characteristics associated with it.

Maureen: It does. We know that it does, for some people.

Paula: Could you define stress? Is there an accepted definition of stress?

Maureen: There probably is, but I don't know what it would be. Stress is open to personal interpretation. What would be stressful for one person would not be for somebody else. So maybe whatever you perceive to be adversity might be a stressor, and that could vary widely among individuals. We also know that there are some people who thrive on stress. There are stress thrivers-- a small sub-population of people who don't follow the pattern. These people don't have the higher incidence of physical or mental health problems as their scores go up on the stress scale. In fact, it's almost like they have to have a minimum level of stress in order to do well, and they do better with high levels of stress.

Paula: It's interesting that researchers have written that one of the characteristics of creative risk takers, these creative adults, is that they have a high tolerance for stress. They possess the characteristics, the personality characteristics, to cope with it. And, as you were describing, these creative producers actually seek out and thrive on certain levels of tension and stress in their lives. When their stress or tension level is too low, they find ways to create it, to "up the ante”. They may, for example, go in a new different direction with their work, one that may be hard for others to accept or may cause them to be on the fringe of their field. But these individuals prefer that kind of more stressful state to a less stressful state. Some researchers such as Ochse suggest that it's not just the stressful state but it's the eventual reduction of the tension and stress that really motivates them to pursue it.

Paula: So do you think that gifted children are at any more risk for healthy psychological development than non-gifted children?

Maureen: I think they can be. But I think it's impossible at this point, given what we know about this, to make any broad, general conclusions about gifted kids in general. You really have to look at the fit, the environmental fit, particularly the educational fit, and the domain of giftedness before you make a statement. I do personally believe that highly creative kids are probably more vulnerable. I also think that academically and intellectually gifted kids are probably more resilient and are more inclined to better adjustment, but of course the context and your personal characteristics will contribute to that.

Paula: What would you say to parents of gifted kids regarding what they could or should do to promote healthy psychological development and would that be any different that what you would say to any other group of parents?

Maureen: I would say something different to parents of gifted children. I would emphasize three things, two of these especially. One is that it's really important to get a good fit, a good educational fit or environmental fit for a gifted child. I think one of the first things and maybe the most important thing that a parent could do in terms of advocating for positive psychological experience for their kids, is to see to it that their educational needs are met. Not having a good fit contributes to risk. And I think that's why the literature suggests that the highly gifted are more at risk. You frequently hear that kids with an I.Q. of 160 or above are more vulnerable. Now, I'm not convinced that there's a level of I.Q. at which you just kind of fall apart psychologically. I think what the research says, in a dozen or more different studies that compared highly gifted and average gifted, is that when you get to those higher levels of IQ, it's much tougher to get a good educational fit for a child. And it's that lack of fit that contributes to psychological or social kinds of difficulties. But if kids do have a good fit, they do quite well, like the literature on acceleration suggests. In accelerated programs, highly gifted kids can have true peers, the curriculum is challenging to them, and they receive validation and affirmation for their ability. So that would be the first thing. Another thing that I would really encourage parents to pursue is supporting their kids in healthy risk taking. What comes up over and over again indirectly in various studies is that, perhaps, (I'm qualifying this because we don't have real clear causal connections by any stretch) the avoidance of risk, or an inability or an unwillingness to take risks when opportunities present themselves, interferes with high achievement, contributes to under-achievement, interferes with leadership and the attainment of high leadership, and interferes with satisfaction in your life. Studies show that the inability or unwillingness to take risks was one of the major contributing factors toward women not really realizing their potential.

And I suspect that fear of risk taking is perhaps also a contributing factor with various cultural groups where there is, perhaps, more need to take a risk in order to accomplish some of the things that you're capable of. If you don't have a process and a tolerance for the anxiety or the discomfort that goes with taking some of those risks, you're never going to go to the place you are capable of going. So, parents need to model risk taking, and I mean getting outside your comfort zone and engaging in experiences where you're not guaranteed success and where you will have to tolerate not doing really well—where your performance will not meet your standards and may not for some time. I think there are certain types of gifted kids who really avoid risk-taking behaviors. I also think that there are ages or developmental periods during which it becomes much more difficult to take risks, and that's what contributes to some of the under-achievement we see among gifted children. Then of course as you know, if you don't take risks at certain periods, you'll lose opportunities, and doors close. The third thing is that parents should make sure that their kids have time with other gifted children. For some parents, that's very easy to do because either their school provides a good gifted program and their child has contact with gifted peers, or they have access in their community to resources. But some parents live in rural areas or their schools do not provide adequately for gifted students, and they will need to go out of their way to provide or arrange for their kids to have time with true peers. I think social contact with other gifted children is really important for psychological health because of what we know about the relationship between social isolation and depression in adolescents and adults. If children don't have access to other gifted children during the school year, parents will need to get their kids to summer programs--and not just programs for high achievers but programs really designed for gifted kids.

Paula: What would you tell parents are warning signs that they should look for that would indicate they should get their child help or that there is some kind of serious psychological issue operating.

Maureen: I don't think the warning signs are any different for gifted kids than they are for average kids. Anytime that you see a drastic change in your kids’ behavior, a very sudden and drastic change, it should be explored some. Now, I say that, and then I want to qualify that that at the middle school level, kids can change pretty drastically on a week-to-week basis. And of course, any time a child talks about self-harm or harm to others, that should be taken seriously. But even those indications don’t necessarily mean that a child's in really serious trouble. They're just red flags that you should explore with your child.

Paula: From an educator's point of view, what role do you think schools have, if any, in this whole issue of promoting the psychological health of gifted kids? What can they do, or should they do anything beyond the academic programs that they offer? Would you make any recommendations to schools and educators about things they could do?

Maureen: Yes, I would say, for all students, schools need to address social and emotional issues and support healthy social and emotional functioning for kids because it's tied to achievement. You can't separate the two and to try and do so would make you less effective in optimizing kids' achievement and development. But I also think that there are limits realistically on what schools can do. I do think that gifted children should receive differentiated curriculum, or different educational experiences in school, and we know that still doesn't happen for most kids. That's a big problem. From the latest study, forty percent of teachers are not differentiating the curriculum for gifted children. Right there, that's a problem, not only in terms of achievement, but also in terms of your psychological functioning because of the lack of fit between the student and the educational program. Beyond that, it would certainly be helpful for school counselors to have some training, or someone on the school staff to have some training about what gifted kids need, what their psychological issues are likely to be, and what family and personal issues gifted kids typically encounter.

Paula: Would you say in a nutshell that basically your position is that gifted kids, if they have vulnerabilities, it's largely a result of the mismatch between their educational environments and their capabilities?

Maureen: For the most part. You have some kids that have certain personal characteristics and whether they're gifted or not, they're going to have difficulties. It has nothing to do with being gifted. Their giftedness might exacerbate their difficulties. The example I like to use is Calvin of Calvin and Hobbs. Calvin is obviously a gifted kid, but even if he was not, he would still be a handful because he likes a power struggle. He's kind of a little oppositional guy and he likes to challenge authority. He’s also highly creative and looking for mischief. And if he can't find it, then he makes it. He would be a tough kid to teach or parent even if he was an average kid. But the fact that he's so bright just makes it a little bit more daunting because his brain is able to come up with a lot more ways to get himself into difficulty.

Maureen Neihart, Psy.D, is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than twenty years' experience counseling gifted children and their families. She is a former member of the board of directors of the National Association for Gifted Children and co-chairs its national task force on the social and emotional needs of gifted children.