ADOLESCENCE AND QUALITY OF LIFE : The Questions of Gender and Giftedness
In this study, the adolescents life’s satisfaction was explored through different factors. In particular, the questions of gender and giftedness were investigated. My motivation to study the high potential relates to two recurrent questions that have been induced by the growing interest for “talented” people. First, having a high intellectual potential might be seen as a risk factor in terms of well-being, sometimes as a characteristic that would not affect the quality of life. In addition, a number of studies have questioned the skills of over-adaptation of gifted girls, making their identification more complicated and a tendency to have a lower well-being than boys.
In order to study the possible characteristics related to the female population, particularly among the population with high intellectual potential, 207 participants, girls and boys aged 9 to 16 years were recruited in a French high school. Huebner’s quality of life scores, MSLSS (Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale, 1994), confirm a significant drop in quality of life during the adolescent period, which had already been confirmed by previous studies. Nevertheless, despite a lack of female high-potential girls from a statistical point of view, the present research does not show any significant differences in the overall scores obtained between individuals with high intellectual potential and their counterparts, or between girls and boys from the control population. The results of this study allow to envisage a positive vision of the high intellectual potential, this particular profile does not invite the concerned individuals to declare a statisfaction of life lower than their peers. Specific results to the sub-dimensions of the scale, including the Self, however, show significant differences between the groups : while boys and girls report an equal degree of life satisfaction, girls have a significantly lower self-esteem score than their male peers.
Fiona Péan
