Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Participate in research on parenting gifted kids

Hi all,

First of all, I do actually exist. If anyone would like to see the clearance email that I have from my Human Research Ethics Committee I am more than happy to forward this information to you.

Secondly, as a poster said, the mental health measures are fairly standard. Basically, I would not be allowed by Ethics to ask you about anything without a measure of your current mental health. Also, it is coming out that some parents are actually manifesting mental health problems. Whether these are caused by raising a gifted child or not I can't say - but it's certainly something that's never been looked at before. It's not to show that 'we' as a group are mentally unstable. I'm actually finding the complete opposite for the majority of parents which is an important message for clinicians who use these standardised measures.

Bh14 - it should let you say unsure or prefer not to answer, or skip completely with most of the demographic information. The only required question is which country you come from. I had thought that the first few pages let you give as little information as you wanted and I'm sorry that this wasn't the case. I'll go and check on it now.

It's fairly standard research design to ask about demographic questions. Also, the population of parents of gifted children has not been looked at in a methodologically sound way. Because I have the demographic information I am able to say that my sample is probably not representative as it's mostly white, middle income, stable relationship with an average of just over 2 kids. As a researcher, that's important info.

I am not looking at 2E's or giftedness in the respondent. I am looking at how the experience of raising a gifted child might make you feel and whether or not negative interactions with others or with educators might be mainfesting itself in a clinically relevant way.

As Drewa4545 has said, this is exploratory so it's a bit like walking through a jungle to see what's there. Without these questions and measures I wouldn't know who, or what, I was talking about.

Thank you to those that have chosen to take part in the study. You'll be pleased to know that it looks like we're a mentally healthy bunch who are coping with the extra demands that parenting these exceptional children places on us (generally) and the stories that people are sharing are a great mixture of wonderfully positive stories mixed in with those from people that are obviously having a tough time getting their children's needs met.

Regards

Natalie