Are Gifted Students More Victimized than Nongifted Students? A Comparison in Prevalence and Relation to Psychological Variables in Early Adolescence

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare the prevalence of bullying victimization and perpetration between a sample of gifted students and a sample of nongifted students, and their relationship in both groups with depression, stress, anxiety, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). A cross-sectional design was performed with two comparison groups: 449 Spanish adolescents identified as gifted (M-age = 11.72, SD = 1.89) and 950 nongifted Spanish students (M-age = 12.72,SD=0.79). Results reveal that 41.1%, 1.1%, and 9.5% of the gifted sample were pure-victims, pure-bullies, and bully-victims, respectively, compared to 21.8%, 2.4%, and 5.8% of the nongifted students. It is observed that gifted students are more likely to be victims (OR = 3.20[2.40, 4.28]). Gifted pure-victims have significantly higher stress scores than nongifted pure-victims (p < .001). In general, pure-victims and bully-victims of gifted and nongifted students both have higher stress, anxiety, and depression scores and lower HRQoL scores than other profiles.