SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING OF GIFTED STUDENTS IN VIETNAM

Abstract

Promoting social and emotional well-being (SEWB) of students has become an important goal for education. Gifted students (GT) who demonstrate distinctive characteristics from their chronological age peers may encounter unique social-emotional challenges which could hinder their personal development, and thus may require unique support from teachers and parents. Vietnamese education, nevertheless, appears to shy away from devoting attention to these special needs. Studies that focus on SEWB of Vietnamese GT, especially those at high-school age are scarce in the existing literature. This study thus aimed at investigating SEWB of GT, through perspectives of the GT, their parents and teachers. Quantitative approach was employed to achieve the research aim. The three groups of participants mentioned above were required to complete the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to screen out the social emotional advantages and disadvantages of the GT. Findings from the study suggested that GT in the current study had medium to high level of social-emotional strength; yet there remained a number of unique issues relating to their social-emotional difficulties, particularly hyperactivity problems. Comparison between students’ responses and those from the other two groups also revealed that parents might have more information about their children’s emotional problems, whereas teachers may be more informed about gifted students’ peer problems. These findings contributed to the limited literature on social-emotional well-being of GT, and had important implications for further research and practices to enhance the social-emotional well-being of GT in general and in the context of Vietnam.