Wren,
I agree with your original statement about the survey having serious flaws:
1. The survey asks for a list of non-sports activities and then wants you to write about one. People will have completely different activities and different reasons for picking them.
For example, my kid goes to French. Someone else's kid might play guitar. I like French because my son learns French and will easily be able to live in the French-speaking country his father is from. My son likes it because he sees his good friend. The reasons for playing guitar could be completely different: say, improve manual dexterity. What about the Girl Scouts? Or art class?
If I had written details about guitar lessons instead of French, the reasons I would have listed would have been completely different.
My point is that it all seems kind of random and I don't see how the results will tell us something meaningful and/or generalizable.
2. There seems to be no control group (reasons for non-gifted kids enrolling in these types of activities). Lots of non-gifted kids go to after school classes, take music lessons, art, or join the scouts.
Even if we overlook the problems in #1, how does the author know that the reasons chosen by parents of gifted kids are different from those of ND kids? She didn't ask, so it's all speculation.
