[[alternative]]Overexcitabilities and peer relationships of gifted students

[[abstract]]The purposes of this study were to investigate the overexcitabilities (OEs) and peer relationships of 5th and 6th gifted students, and to explore the relationship between OEs and peer relationships. Subjects include 126 gifted students, 1460 regular students, and 4 teachers in Taipei City. Data were collected by means of “The Me Scale”, sociometric nomination inventory, “The Friendship Perception Scale”, and the interview outline based on the reference. For data analysis, descriptive statistics were used to investigate the OEs and the peer relationships, chi-square test, t-test, and ANOVA were to test the differences of independent variables in OEs and peer relationships. Besides Pearson correlation and the statistical methods mentioned above, qualitative data were recorded as detailed dialogue to explore the relationship between OEs and peer relationships. The main findings of this research are as follows: 1.The number of gifted students exhibiting more TOE, MOE and EOE is more than regular students. 2.The male gifted students show more significant POE (F＝6.119, p<.05) and TOE (F＝4.210, p<.05) than female gifted students. 3.The male gifted students are more popular than regular male students (χ&sup2;=10.977，p<.05), and the difference of popularity between female gifted students and regular female students is not significant. 4.The percentage of the gifted students nominating the same-sex friends mutually is .78, and the proportion of gifted students regarding other gifted as friends is not low (.45). 5.There is no gender difference in the friendship reciprocity of the gifted students (χ&sup2;=2.346, p>.05). 6.The average amount of the gifted students’ friends is 2.82 (SD＝1.7). 7.There is no gender difference in the number of the gifted students’ friends (t＝-1.781, p>.05). 8.Gifted students have good friendship qualities in terms of ‘association’, ‘admiration’, ‘affection’, ‘prosocial’, and ‘intimacy’. 9.The friendship qualities of female gifted students are better than male gifted students in ‘association’ (F＝5.52, p<.05), ‘prosocial’ (F＝12.882, p<.001), and ‘intimacy’ (F＝9.659, p<.01). Besides, in ‘association’, gifted students with mutual nomination score higher than those with unilateral nomination (F＝7.851, p<.01). 10.Those traits of TOE and MOE, such as intelligent, charming wit and humor, and a few characteristics of EOE can be factors contributing to the sociometric status of gifted students. 11.Those traits of TOE and EOE, such as busybody and irascible, and a few characteristics of POE are reasons that classmates don’t like gifted students. 12.Gifted students with medium SOE (χ&sup2;=11.942，p<.05), MOE (χ&sup2;=6.801，p<.05), and EOE (χ&sup2;=10.864，p<.05) tend to have regular or good popularity, and those with higher SOE, MOE and EOE are likely to be neglected and rejected. 13.There are no differences among levels of OEs in the friendship reciprocity of the gifted students (p>.05). 14.Gifted students with medium TOE have more friends, and those with higher TOE have less friends (χ&sup2;=5.217，p<.05). 15.In terms of the correlation between OEs and friendship qualities, there is low positive correlation between SOE and ‘extracharacteristic’ (r＝.205), and low negative correlation between SOE and ‘admiration’ (r＝-.266). 16.According to the interview with 4 gifted students, the differences of the demonstration of EOE, in aspects of feelings of guilt, concern with death, complex emotions, strong affective memory, identification with others’ feelings, and sensitivity in relationships, between the popular and rejected gifted students show the unfavorable impact of EOE on peer relationship.