An Exploration of the Psychosocial Characteristics of High Achieving Students and Identified Gifted Students: Implications for Practice

High achieving students or "bright children" are often denied access to gifted services because they do not meet "gifted" criteria. Although psychosocial factors play an integral role in academic success, and can be useful in providing a clearer picture of student need, they are seldom considered in the decision to identify a student for gifted services. This study compared identified gifted students and non-identified high achieving students on their self-perceptions of several psychosocial factors to provide additional evidence that gifted services, depending on the framework and content of these services, may be appropriate for non-identified high achieving students as well. Results indicated that non-identified high achieving students' psychosocial self-perceptions, as measured by the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R) Subscales, were comparable with the identified gifted students, suggesting that the high achieving students could have benefited from the gifted services their school offered.