Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research Seeking Participants for Research Project

Dear Parents of Gifted Adolescents,

I am a graduate student at Ohio University conducting my dissertation research on the social experiences of the gifted. I am looking to recruit intellectually gifted adolescents ages 10-18 (grades 5th-12th) to keep a journal of their social experiences for a month. I am particularly interested in their experiences of social exclusion (like ostracism, bullying, teasing, etc.) and inclusion.

If your child would like to participate in the study, I will ask her/him to: (1) Keep a journal about her/his social experiences, including every time she/he experiences social exclusion/inclusion, observes social exclusion/inclusion, or socially excludes/includes others. She/he will write journals on a website designed specifically for this study and only my adviser and I will have access to their journals. (2) Participate in a phone interview where I will ask clarifying questions about her/his journal entries at the end of the project. All participant information is confidential, and participants will be given ID numbers for the study. This project has been approved by the Ohio University IRB. For more information about the study or participant privacy, feel free to visit the study website at: projectexperience.strileyconsulting.com.

Here is a little information about me: As a child, I was labeled �exceptionally gifted,� and experienced bullying and social exclusion, often because I cared more about things like astronomy and herpetology than sports or celebrities. Then, I switched schools and attended Phelps Center for the Gifted in Missouri. At Phelps, I found a lifelong group of peers and friends, and felt accepted for the first time. Today, I am passionate about helping to improve the lives of gifted adolescents. I understand that helping the gifted to flourish does not just mean attending to their intellectual and academic needs, but also their social and emotional needs.

I have been conducting research on gifted adolescents since 2007. I have had the privilege of working on a variety of projects, including multi-million dollar quantitative and qualitative grant-funded studies, quantitative survey designs, down to small projects where I simply asked gifted adolescents to share one story with me. I received my M.A. in Communication Studies from Missouri State University in 2009, and I am currently working towards a PhD at Ohio University. I also have been teaching quantitative and qualitative research methods at the college level since 2009. Several of the articles I have written about gifted adolescents have won national and regional awards, including an article that received the Donald P. Cushman Award in 2011 from the National Communication Association. My research and work with adolescents has also included creating anti-bullying programs for elementary schools, training students as peer mediators, and creating conflict resolution programs and substance abuse prevention programs for middle schools and high schools.


If you are a parent of a gifted adolescent between 10-18 (grades 5th -12th) and think your child would like to participate in this study, please contact me at cs210209@ohio.edu or call me at 314-604-4298. I'd love to answer any questions or concerns you have about this project and I am excited about the possibility of working with you and the potential this project could have for gifted children and their families.

Sincerely,
Katie

Katie Margavio Striley, M.A.
Doctoral Candidate
School of Communication Studies
Ohio University
cell: 314-604-4298
email: cs210209@ohio.edu

Are you interested in the experiences of 2e adolescents? Or is that considered a confounding factor?

Hi HowelerKarma, actually I would love to hear about the experiences of 2e adolescents. I have several of them currently enrolled but would love to hear from even more. If your child is interested in participating, the next step would be to set up a time to speak with you on the phone so I could go over the study informed consent and explain how the study website works (where participants keep their journals).

If you are interested, please email me at cs210209@ohio.edu so we can set up a time to talk!

Gifted Grad, how are you defining "gifted"? My niece is considered to be gifted by the public school in Ohio, where she lives, but wouldn't be at our public school in Virginia, where I live. She would be another 2E person for you, depending upon how you're defining it.

Thanks for doing this research! My daughter is only 8, or she'd definitely be helping you.

After the study, will a link be posted as a follow-up or update on this thread so people may read the results?

It would be interesting to learn about teachers' influence or contributory factors toward isolation/exclusion/bullying of the gifted, as it seems kids may in some cases be role modeling their behavior toward the gifted after classroom practices such as having a gifted child's differentiation consist of working alone, without benefit of cluster grouping by readiness and ability.

Hi GiftedGrad,

My son is gifted. He started college at 10 and now he is 15 and has a semester to go for his BS math major / econ minor. He was identified as such very, very young. You can get in touch with us for your research.