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3.4.13 Impact of Boredom and Belonging on Feelings of Anxiety and Depression Among Gifted Students
This session provides results from a recent study that explores how gifted students’ perception of boredom and belonging are related to depression, anxiety, and behavior and how their perceptions of academic challenge in gifted versus regular classrooms correlate with boredom and belonging. Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) concept of flow is the backdrop for the development of the study as it identifies boredom and anxiety as outcomes when skill and challenge are not balanced, creating a barrier to goal pursuit.
The presentation will begin with a review of the literature on key constructs including depression, anxiety, boredom, and belonging in gifted students. For example, boredom has been studied among gifted students (Gallagher et al., 1997; Preckel et al., 2010) as a frequent complaint that is hypothesized to be related to underachievement. Belonging, while not as well studied, has been identified as a protective factor against depression among gifted students (Mueller, 2009). Next, research questions and findings will be discussed including correlations of service, challenge, and friendships with boredom and belonging in gifted versus regular classrooms and outcomes of regression analyses finding that perceptions of boredom and belonging in and out of gifted classrooms predict scores on measures of depression, anxiety and behavior. Implications for teachers, administrators, and school and mental health counselors will be shared.