Abstract
This study aimed to examine the association between parental educational practices and emotional/behavioral problems in adolescents with high abilities/giftedness (HA/G), besides verifying the predictive power of these practices and sociodemographic variables on emotional and behavioral problems and differences between genders. This is a cross-sectional, observational and explanatory study conducted with 14 adolescents aged between 12 and 16 years (M = 13.2, SD = 1.4), of whom 10 were boys (71.4%) and four girls (28.6%), considered as presenting with HA/G according to the Wechsler Intelligence Abbreviated Scale (WASI). Data were collected using the sociodemographic variables questionnaire, the Parental Practice Scales, and the Youth Self-Report Behavior Inventory for Age 11-18. The results indicate a predominance of maternal educational practices such as responsibility demands, emotional support, and autonomy encouragement. Boys presented more internalizing problems indicators and total score problems about 30% higher than the mean value found for girls. Lower maternal autonomy encouragement explained 17.4% of the total problems identified. On the other hand, lower maternal punitive control explained 24.9% of positive aspects indicators. These data indicate that HA/G boys present a higher incidence of indicators of emotional and behavioral problems and that these problems are associated with family characteristics, especially maternal educational practices, point to the need for further looks at such issues.
Keywords:
Gifted; Educational Practices; Emotional Problems; Behavior Problems