Personality styles and behavioral repertoires in girls with high abilities

Abstract

Several explanations have been given for underrepresentation of women w-ithin gifted population, including differences in personality traits, competencies and/ or motivations, beliefs and gender stereotypes expecta-tions, and gender-differentiated beha\"Íors; which highlights the importance of including these factors in observation, e,·aluation and screening proto-cols for children and adolescents. Therefore, this study aims to define if there are significant differences in gender-related personality styles and be-havior patterns in highly talented adolescents. Participants were 159 ado-lescents between 11-16 years of age, divided into two groups. (1) High abíl-ities group: a group of 85 adolescents (40 boys, 45 gitls); (2) Typical group: a group of 74 adolescents (49 boys, 25 girls). Ali participants were assessed usíng personality, resilience, perfectionism, rule-follmv-ing, perseverative thinking and experiential avoidance tests. Results reYealed that gifted girls had higher seores than boys in sorne personality styles and beha,-ior pat-tems considered as "negative". Specifically, girls scored significantly higher in anxiety, dominance, aggressi,·eness, among others and lower than boys on emotional stability, self-concept, self-confidence and cogniti,·e control Finally, implications for assessing and supporting gifted population are dis-cussed.