Self-consciousness, self-esteem and depression of gifted school children

38 gifted students from north central school districts were administered the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory--Short Form, the Self-consciousness Scale, and the Children's Depression Inventory. The gifted students' mean score on depression was below the cut-off and so did not indicate depression while their mean score on self-esteem was within average range. The Pearson correlation for self-esteem and lie scores was significant and positive, indicating, if the lie scores are high, the self-esteem scores tend to be high. The General Self-consciousness mean was low; students spend time examining their own behavior and thought. The Private Self-consciousness mean was low and suggests, however, these students tend to avoid thinking about themselves and are not so overly concerned with self-examination that this interferes with everyday function. On Public Self-consciousness a borderline low mean score allows the inference that these students display little concern about how others will react to them in social settings, how they appear to others, that is, they show some insensitivity associated with high self-confidence. The mean on Social Anxiety was within the normal limits.