Social and academic self-concepts of gifted adolescents

Self-concept is a construct that is greatly challenged during adolescence. Gifted students undergo the same developmental processes as their less able peers, but the way they handle these transformations may be quite differen t. Although self-concept seems to be a multifaceted hierarchical construct, too often educators force it into a unidimensional definition that they ap ply in the same way to all students. A review of the literature on the acad emic and the social self-concepts of gifted adolescents reveals the importa nce of considering the unique talents of the individual rather than conside ring gifted students as a homogeneous group.