Gender, Race, and Grade Differences in Gifted Adolescents' Coping Strategies

Abstract

While investigations of adolescents' coping strategies are useful, high-ability students face pressures, such as a lack of challenge in school or anti-intellectual school climates, that further complicate the tumultuous changes associated with adolescence. The purpose of this study is to produce evidence of demographic effects, or the lack thereof, in gifted adolescents' coping in order to guide affective intervention efforts with this population. The Adolescent Coping Scale was administered to 749 gifted students attending two different summer enrichment programs. MANOVA with post hoc descriptive discriminant analysis provides little evidence of gender or grade differences but suggests the presence of moderate racial differences.