Another study, by researchers Gregory J. Park, David Lubinski and Camilla P. Benbow, that followed highly gifted children 40 years into their adulthood and examined the long-term impact of grade-skipping related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) came up with similar findings.
Grade-skippers were found to be significantly more likely to achieve Ph.D.‘s, publish their first paper at an earlier age and achieve highly cited publications by age 50. Grade-skippers compared to non-grade-skippers were 1.6 times as likely to earn a doctorate of any kind, twice as likely to earn a STEM Ph.D., 1.6 times as likely to earn a STEM publication, and 1.6 times as likely to earn a patent.
I suspect the outcomes reported in this study exaggerate the benefits of grade-skipping. Although the authors attempted to match the skipped and non-skipped cohorts, there is room for differences to be caused by unobserved variables. (This is mentioned in the "limitations" section.)
About 80% of the students included in the study had never had a grade skip prior to identification. We know that grade skips are almost always the result of advocacy (typically on the part of the parents). Thus the "grade-skip" group is stacked with children of parents who are inclined to perform such advocacy, while the "non-grade-skip" group isn't. I doubt that matching for parental education, career prestige, income, or any of the other parameters used would alleviate this discrepancy.
So how much of what they are measuring can be attributed to the skip itself, and how much of it can be attributed to having informed, involved parents who wont shy away from some advocacy?
In the case of self advocacy, how much of the measured differences can be contributed to personality? Are the same students who will self advocate for a skip the ones who will have more advanced degrees and more publications, even when matched for intellect? Probably.
That's my initial take on it, anyway. I went through it kind of quick, so let me know if there's good reason to disagree.
