Creative out-of-school activities in intellectually gifted adolescents as predictors of their life accomplishment in young adults: A longitudinal study

Career interests and abilities were examined in 130 young adults who, as ad olescents, had received exceptionally high scores (top 5% of the entire cou ntry) on the test of general intelligence developed by the Israel Defense F orce and used each year for selection and placement of recruits. The intere sts and abilities of the majority of the intellectually gifted research par ticipants were found to be focused and not the opposite, as has been widely assumed among educators of the gifted. In 45% of the research participants , we found a strong relation between the focus of adolescents' out-of-schoo l activities and the field of their adult vocation. Moreover, participants whose adolescent out-of-school activities matched their adult occupation ha d a higher level of work accomplishment than participants for whom such a m atch was absent. Our findings indicate that measures of out-of-school activ ities may provide an appropriate tool for counselors to use in career couns eling with adolescents. Finally, young adults Mho were recognized as intell ectually gifted in their adolescence perceived their family climate very po sitively. They described their families us highly cohesive and said that fa mily members helped and supported one another.