Gifted Adults: A Systematic Review and Analysis of the Literature

What happens when a gifted child grows up? Despite a slew of provocative book titles regarding gifted adults in the mainstream media, and the inclusion of the notion of giftedness among adults in the definition of giftedness proposed by Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, and Worrell, there is a limited amount of research that has examined the gifted adult. In this systematic review of the literature, we categorized the available research literature into nine thematic areas: (a) whether or not gifted children become gifted adults; (b) family of origin; (c) effects of early educational experiences; (d) characteristics of gifted adults; (e) career; (f) family of procreation; (g) career and family interaction; (h) life goals, satisfaction, and well-being; and (i) counseling. Implications for gifted adults and the field of gifted education are discussed.