Depression and self-actualization of gifted adolescents

Administered the Multiscore Depression Inventory and the Personal Orientation Inventory to 248 academically gifted adolescents drawn from across the state of South Carolina to participate in a select program. Low but significant correlations were noted among several of the scales. Factor analysis of the scales of both instruments resulted in five factors for females and six for males. In both samples the first two factors accounted for more than half the variance. Gifted students who were not self-actualizing types were more depressed, and their pattern of scores revealed that guilt, low self-esteem, learned helplessness, and cognitive difficulty were important symptoms. The gifted adolescents, on the whole, tended to be more socially introverted.