Parenting gifted children is different from parenting “regular” children in a variety of aspects. Many parents of gifted children feel they need more information about the unique characteristics and the special needs of gifted children, and they feel they need to interact with other parents of gifted children where they can share their problems and experiences with their gifted children.
This research study tried to determine if participating in a parents’ support group for parents of gifted children had an influence on: 1. Knowledge about the unique characteristics and special needs of the gifted children. 2. Relationships between the participating parents and their gifted children. 3. Parents’ confidence toward parenting the gifted.
A survey was developed to probe the three research questions. The first three parts of the survey were designed to answer the three research questions. Two open-ended questions that asked for elaboration about the experiences the parents had in the support groups were given only to the experimental group. The last part of the survey consisted of mostly demographic questions. Scores for the experimental group and the control group were calculated using t-tests to look for significant differences between the two groups. No significant difference was found for any of the three research questions. Reasons that might have affected the outcomes are discussed in the study. From the answers to the open-ended questions one can speculate that the support groups did help the parents in the areas that were examined in this research.