Among past studies attempting to identify factors which account for th
e large individual differences in attitude toward gifted education, no
ne has succeeded in doing so with much precision. In their literature
review, Begin and Gagne (1994) attributed this lack of significant res
ults in large part to various methodological problems. These methodolo
gical problems were directly addressed in the present study. A sample
of 139 teachers and 138 parents completed an attitude scale and answer
ed ten sociodemographic questions. The results of a first regression a
nalysis underscored the importance of certain individual variables, su
ch as education level and family income, as predictors of the attitude
scores. In order to account for the non-independence between the ten
variables involved, principal components were extracted and four facto
rs identified. Factor scores were then introduced in a new regression
analysis. Two of them, Socioeconomic Status and Contact with Giftednes
s, were found to explain 12% and 10% respectively of the variance in a
ttitude scores, twice as much than in the most successful past study.
It is recommended that this methodological approach be used in future
studies to search for other significant predictors of people's attitud
es toward the education of gifted and talented children.