Sibling Differences Within Gifted and Talented Families — Part 1

An Introduction to a Qualitative Study of Gifted Families

There are many different issues and outcomes between and among siblings. The family members’ different personalities, viewpoints, sex, sex roles, and behaviors all have some effect on the gifted children who have siblings. Some of these effects can lead to negative issues that an “only child” never experiences.

My overall goal when I conducted my longitudinal research about gifted children now grown up (1) is that you, the reader, will gain insights from the different scenarios and examples described by the study participants in their own words, as they recall what their relationships and experiences with their siblings were like. Some of the examples are simply common for any family group, and in those cases, giftedness, while important to outcomes, is not necessarily the primary issue. Sometimes giftedness itself becomes so much of a focus that parents and the now-adult gifted children fail to understand that their emotional issues are typical enough that a counselor or therapist who isn’t experienced in high intelligence is still capable of providing good mental health support for them.

Other examples, however, are relevant to this study because when one of the children in a family has…