Peer Acceptance of Highly Gifted Children in Elementary School

The variables associated with peer acceptance and rejection have been the subject of considerable investigation over the past few years, therefore, the present study was designed to answer three questions: (1) How socially accepted are highly gifted children in the elementary-school classroom? (2) What is the intellectual level of the children whom they choose as friends? and (3) What is the intellectual level of children who choose gifted children for friends? This study of peer acceptance of highly gifted children seemed to indicate that, as a group, they were highly popular with their classmates and far from isolating themselves in social cliques with other bright classmates, the gifted children extended their own friendships throughout the entire intellectual range in their classroom. On the other hand, children of all levels of intellectual ability valued the gifted as friends.