• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.875-892
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among peer relation disposition, relationship maintenance effort and school adjustment of gifted students and non-gifted students. And then the final purpose of the study is to give suggestions to help improving gifted students' peer relationship and their school adjustment. For the study, 175 gifted students and 179 non-gifted students in grades 4 and 6 of 5 elementary schools in urban areas were assessed on their peer relation disposition, relationship maintenance effort and school adjustment. The results are summarized as follows. First, gifted students were significantly higher than that of the non-gifted students as a whole. Second, in the correlation among peer relation disposition, relationship maintenance effort and school adjustment, peer relation disposition and relationship maintenance effort showed a significantly positive correlation with all the subvariables of school adjustment. Third, Sympathy-Acceptance disposition was the most influential factor for gifted students, and Independence-Responsibility disposition was the most influential factor for non-gifted students. Finally, the cluster analysis results based on the peer relation type of the gifted and the non-gifted suggested four meaningful clusters. And the four clusters showed significantly differences with all the subvariables of school adjustment. Implications of the study were discussed in depth related to the gifted education practices.