Differences in self-concept, racial identity, self-efficacy, resilience, and achievement among African-American gifted and non-gifted students: Implications for retention and persistence of African Americans in gifted programs

This comparative study investigated differences in self-concept, racial identity, self-efficacy, resilience, and achievement among African-American gifted and non-gifted students. Specifically, the study evaluated if gifted students are more resilient, report higher self-efficacy and self-concept, express differing attitudes of racial identity, and achieve at higher rates, compared to non-gifted students. Previous literature in this area has been limited to college-aged students and further studies are needed with school aged population. The study utilized a causal-comparative Ex-Post Facto design and separate t test and the Mann Whitney tests of independent samples to examine if there were significant differences between the scores of 37 gifted (n=37/15 males and 22 females) students and 38 non-gifted students (n=38/16 males and 22 females) students on the four measures: self-efficacy, resiliency, self-concept and racial identity. Analysis of the data indicated that students in the gifted sample scored higher on indexes of resilience, self-concepts and self-efficacy, as well as different racial identity levels. As expected, findings also indicated students in the gifted sample reported higher grades and GPA's than did the non-gifted sample. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for educational policy and service practices for school psychology to improve the retention and persistence in gifted programs.