STABILITY OF VOCATIONAL INTERESTS AMONG THE INTELLECTUALLY GIFTED FROM ADOLESCENCE TO ADULTHOOD - A 15-YEAR LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

A sample of 162 intellectually gifted adolescents(top 1%)were administ ered the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory at age 13. Fifteen years l ater, they were administered the Strong again. This study evaluated th e intra- and interindividual temporal stability of the 6 RIASEC (Reali stic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) the mes and the Strong's 23 Basic Interest Scales. Over the 15-year test-r etest interval, RIASEC's median interindividual correlation for the 6 themes was .46; the median of all 162 intraindividual correlations was .57. Configural analyses of the most dominant theme at age 13 reveale d that this theme was significantly more likely than chance to be eith er dominant or adjacent to the dominant theme at age 28-following RIAS EC's hexagonal structure. For intellectually gifted individuals, it ap pears to be possible to forecast salient features of their adult RIASE C profile by assessing their vocational interests during early adolesc ence, but some RIASEC themes seem more stable than others.