Is Being Gifted a Ticket to Success?

Gifted Children Grown Up: 18 years later …

Introduction to a Longitudinal Study

Yes, that’s what I do. I’m an investigative author who looks into why people turn out the ways that they do.

Last summer (2023) I released a book about the gifted children and their families with whom I’d worked in the early 2000s. Those kids are now grown up.[i] The book is The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up: What They Tell Us (2023).

Because the book is long, I will release a series of three stand-alone smaller books in 2024. These smaller books will contain discussion questions and titles that make it clear what the focus of each book is. The first one will “go live” October 24, 2024.

In the meantime, I’m sharing parts of the first book in 6 to 8 minute posts. I might slip in a few longer ones if I can’t help myself. After all, the purpose of my writing is to clarify things about people, about us.

What’s the book about?

This book is about how background experiences and opportunities affected the different ways a specific group of 78 gifted children — those from the first book[i] — turned out as they reached adulthood. I shared many details of the subjects’ early lives and school years in the earlier 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options book. That book listed how the subjects scored on multiple, often different, ability tests, what they were like in their interests, early abilities, and temperaments, and how their parents started the search for the right fit in school.

In this updated book study, I compare outcomes of people who are of similar ability and promise within those original 5 Levels I created to help parents know what their own gifted children needed in school. That’s what “Losing Our Minds: Too Many GIfted Children Left Behind” is specifically about: the educational and early career journeys that show how gifted child outcomes diverge and why that is so.

I look at issues around happiness, contentment, social connections, and other roles in their lives of interest to the subjects that support their overall goals. This can include career, family, and volunteer projects, for example.

During my oral and written interviews with the participants, it became apparent many subjects had positive things to say about these topics. There are many, however, who reported some satisfying aspects of their adult lives while expressing dissatisfaction with other areas. In all cases, I looked for both environmental and personal patterns in their child and adolescent years to provide answers.

How did you decide what’s connected to outcomes?

When background experiences — the time leading up to adulthood — appear to lead to any negative outcomes, I look at and probe what might be behind it. And by negative outcomes, I mean depression, anxiety, low levels of self-confidence or self-esteem, and an inability to have successful social relationships or “success” in preparing for and obtaining the career roles that feel good (i.e., satisfying, fulfilling) to the particular gifted adult. Making lots of money or not making lots of money is not a focus of the study, but I include that information, as well.

In this book, we see how people with similar ability profiles — Levels of Giftedness — diverge from one another as they go through school, family life, a social world, and the typical tasks of becoming and being gifted adults. By the time they reach adulthood, some people are comfortable with their career path, social life, and income. They are not unusually depressed or anxious.

In this study, it is considered a good outcome when people are generally happy with the way their lives are going. Some others, however, are struggling in one or more of the aforementioned areas. That’s not a great outcome.

If a book study subject is struggling in one or more areas, the outcome — at least so far — isn’t as good as we might expect or wish. After all, these are highly intelligent people and most of us expect them to “do well” when they grow up. In my experience, most people assume being smart gives people an advantage in the game of life. Although it isn’t possible to give definitive answers for what causes these differences in book study subjects’ outcomes — because there are too few people and too restricted a range of individuals to draw definitive conclusions — it is still possible to see patterns that precede favorable or less favorable outcomes.

How did you decide which of your former clients to include?

I selected families for the first book for whom I had a lot of information and who said they would participate. I tried to select a similar number for each of the 5 Levels of Gifted, but the highest intelligence Level, Five, has fewer and more of the women dropped out for the follow-up. I also knew that most smart people reading the books would be in Levels Two and Three, so I didn’t choose many from Level One. Level One is the average ability range of people in the professions, by the way.

For the second book, I moved many of the now adult gifted to higher Levels as I discovered some of my criteria for their selection depended on parent input (not just test scores) and many parent weren’t looking for — or reporting — the same qualities I now know are more important.

Additionally, the subjects of the 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up book are an unusual group in that their parents were proactive about getting their children evaluated and finding the best fit and opportunities in their schooling. The data compiled here is not from a random sample; it is a convenience sample of children brought to me professionally for advice, guidance, or evaluation.

What are some of the demographics of your subjects?

The people in this book were raised primarily by American-born Baby Boom and early Gen X parents. The group is mainly white, middle to upper middle class socioeconomically, and shares similar cultural backgrounds in religion, education, and social class.

The individual subjects and their families are a small sliver of the gifted population in that regard because it is common that many gifted children’s families do not seek outside endorsement of their child’s abilities. In the latter cases, some parents trust that the school knows what it’s doing, or they don’t “see” their child’s giftedness, or they can’t afford the money or time to seek help.

As I wrote this book, it became apparent a family’s socioeconomic, cultural, and personal values background can affect what one’s parents do or don’t do for their very bright child or children. Even among these families, some had fewer options for a variety of reasons. I delve into these issues in the books.

All of these adult subjects were aware they were considered “gifted.” Again, it is not always the case that highly intelligent youngsters know they are gifted, nor do many gifted people know or understand they’re gifted by the time they are adults. If some trusted authority figure never came out and told them they were gifted, many thought they weren’t part of that group. This uncertainty or lack of awareness about their giftedness happened especially — as I discovered when doing my case study work for my 1998 doctoral dissertation[ii] — if they weren’t stellar students with excellent grades.

Why aren’t more people of color in your book?

Gifted people, be they children or adults, do not come only from middle and high socioeconomic classes. My early life and experiences left me largely unaware of how much America — and many other places around the world — have cultures and systems that have favored and disfavored different groups throughout history.[iii]

At this point, my studies and observations alike show me there are no clearly inherent differences in innate ability and potential between different groups of human beings. Several people — subjects in the book — have the experience of being part of marginalized racial or ethnic groups and it is cited here when they mention it. Differences in outcomes are greatly affected by our different environments, and that, too, is what this book is about.

What was your process?

I endeavored to speak directly with each participant and only contacted the parents of the adult subjects when I had difficulty finding and reaching their children. My goal was to provide a safe and anonymous opportunity for each participant to share what their childhood looked like (their viewpoint), how their schools and parents dealt with them (parenting styles), how their social lives and relationships were then and are now, if they went to college and how that expense was covered, and what they are doing now for their jobs or careers.

I use charts and tables to group participants in various ways to show numerous factors that affect how the participants respond to the interview questions about their lives. Included among those factors that go beyond a good social and academic “fit” are the subjects’ responses to what I refer to as complicators. In other words, what besides “good fit” affects the different subjects who are essentially equally intelligent and capable?

As I analyzed the material from the study subjects, I saw that viewpoints and personalities play an outsized role in how people see themselves and how they perform in school. It became manifestly clear that how people “turn out” is an incredibly complex issue. What works well for one person might be awful for another.

I looked at the family structure to see how parenting style and viewpoints, child and parent personality style similarities or differences, cultural and religious views and practices, divorce, death in the family or friendship circle, bullying, sibling relationships, overall mental, social, and physical health of parents and extended family seemed to affect outcomes.

I interviewed, by phone and in person, 50 participants from the original Levels book. I had at least some information about 64 of the original subjects but was unable to personally contact 14 of them. The approximate age range of the participants during the interview period is 20 to 45. I note how old each person is at the time of our interview, and in some cases, the age goes up for several interviews that occurred over several different time frames. I spent 2014 into 2023 to write the book.

Within each section, I explain what I think their views and input mean. I also contacted 12 other people to read and review the manuscript and weigh in with their own interpretations from their own background professions and experiences. The names, credentials, and background of each invited reviewer who gave interpretations are noted throughout the book.

Within this this book is a close look at the lives of gifted children, now grown — some just starting out and some with families and well into their careers — and how they have turned out so far. It is my hope that readers see their children, friends, relatives, and themselves in these pages. It is my hope, too, that readers discover new insights, approaches, and policies to meet the needs of all the highly intelligent people in not only their lives but in the lives of other intelligent children and adults in the world.

I look forward to the input and opinions of my readers. It gives me new ideas!

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[i] The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up is a follow-up book to one I wrote and published in 2005. Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind, my first book, was retitled 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options in 2009. The content didn’t change in the retitled book.

[ii] Ruf, D. L. (1998). Environmental, familial, and personal factors that affect the self-actualization of highly gifted adults: Case Studies. Unpublished dissertation: University of Minnesota.

[iii] See Wilkerson, I. (2020). Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Random House.

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My current published and coming books about the gifted:

The Five Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up: What They Tell Us (2023). https://www.amazon.com/Levels-Gifted-Children-Grown-Up/dp/B0C9SHFRLH or https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-5-levels-of-gifted-children-grown-up-phd-deborah-l-ruf/1143719859?ean=9798988323709. This is an 18 year longitudinal study follow-up about the original gifted child subjects in 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options (2005, 2009).

Keys to Successfully Parenting the Gifted Child (2023). Keys to Successfully Parenting Gifted Children (2022, 2023)

Losing Our Minds: Too Many Gifted Children Left Behind (Oct. 2024). Available for pre-order now. Follow this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHV6QT6F. Both print and ebook are available after October 24, 2024 on several platforms.

5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options in 2009. Here are links to the 5 Levels of Gifted book on Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/5-levels-of-gifted-deborah-ruf/1126358834 and Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Levels-Gifted-School-Educational-Options/dp/0910707987 or directly from the publisher: https://www.giftedunlimitedllc.com/store/p12/5_Levels_of_Gifted.html

Environmental, Familial, and Personal Factors That Affect the Self-Actualization of Highly Gifted Adults: Case Studies (D. Ruf, 1998) doctoral dissertation. Free PDF https://dabrowskicenter.org/ruf

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Dr. Ruf is available for the following services.

Click for details and to schedule:
 One-Hour Test Interpretation
 Gifted Child Test Interpretation & Guidance
 20-Minute Consultation
 45-Minute Consultation
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