A study on the self-esteem of the gifted children

영재아의 자아존중감에 관한 연구

This study analyzes the factors influencing self-esteem of the gifted children. The factors are divided into the environmental ones and innate ones. The purposes of this study is presented as follows. 1) To analyze the environmental factors influencing self-esteem of the gifted children (1) whether the education period affects self-esteem of the gifted children? (2) what influences do the manners of parental child-rearing behavior make? (3) what influences do peer relationships make on self-esteem of the gifted children? 2) To analyze the innate factors influencing self-esteem of the gifted children (1) does the gender make a difference to self-esteem of the gifted children? (2) does the level of intelligence make a difference to self-esteem of the gifted children? (3) what influences does the locus of control make on the self-esteem of the gifted children? To solve these questions 120 gifted children were selected, who were taking a special education program at C Korea Academy of Gifted Education located at Yangjae-dong Seocho-gu. They were 1st to 3rd grades at elementary school. We used Hare Self-Esteem Scale developed by Bruce R. Hare in 1985, the Index of Peer Relations developed by Hudson in 1986, and Nowicki & Strickland Locus of Control Scale developed by Nowicki and Strickland in 1973. At the other hand the nursing behaviors of 120 mothers of the gifted, were also investigated, based on the Korean Maternal Behavior Inventory, developed by Sungyeon Park in 1989 with some modifications. For statistical analysis we adopted SPSS, a computer software, and calaulated the coefficient of internal appropriateness and the frequencies and percentages of general aspects of the cases. We analysed the factors influencing the self-esteem of the gifted children by way of Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient, t-test, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis and Duncan for ex-post-facto approval. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. 1) Influences of the environmental factors on the self-esteem of the gifted children: (1) The duration of education period had a significant effect on the self-esteem; the longer the duration were, the higher self-esteem they possessed. (2) Of parental child-rearing behaviors, active involvement had positive influence on the self-esteem; on the contrary, authoritarian control and overprotection had negative influences on the self-esteem. (3) An acceptable peer relationship had a positive influence on the self-esteem of the gifted children. 2) Influences of individual innate characteristics on the self-esteem of the gifted children: (1) The gender made no difference on the self-esteem of the gifted. (2) The intelligence did not have a statistically significant effect on the self-esteem of the gifted. (3) When the locus of control was external, the self-esteem of the gifted tended to be low.