Self‐esteem of gifted adolescent girls in Australian schools

Educators need be concerned with the emotional and social domains of female gifted learners when confronted with the responsibility of educating these young people. The subjects in this study were 158 adolescent girls, 81 gifted and 77 non‐gifted, enrolled in years seven, eight and nine, in post primary schools near Melbourne, Australia. In comparing the self‐esteem of gifted and non‐gifted female students, it was found that non‐ gifted girls were higher in both total and social self‐esteem than the gifted girls, and that the differences in total self‐ esteem were related to year level. The implications of the findings for the education of gifted girls are discussed.