Research on Giftedness for the Gifted

Study on Gifted Youth

TERMS OF PARTICIPATION

To participate in the study, you/your child must:

Be 12 to 17 years old
Have had formal testing done to receive an IQ score at or above 130
Have had an IQ score measured with a commonly used standardized test of intelligence***
Reside in the United Sates of America
Understand English when hearing it, and be comfortable writing and speaking it
Have access to a computer and internet at home

Participants will not be excluded from this study based on any criteria other than outlined above.

***Accepted tests of intelligence for this study (all editions) are:

a Wechsler scale of intelligence (WAIS, WISC, WPPSI, WASI)
the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (SB)
the Differential Ability Scales (DAS)
Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (KABC)
Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT)
Wide Range Intelligence Test (WRIT)
Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-TOC)
Raven’s Progressive Matrices (Raven’s)
Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales (RIAS)
Wechsler Nonverbal Scale of Ability (WNV)
Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (CTONI)
Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT)

If you decide to allow your child to participate in this research study, you will be asked to provide:

Your child’s IQ score and the tools used to measure it
General demographic information about your child (e.g. age, gender, etc.).

Your child will be asked to complete:

A personality Questionnaire (5-10 min).
An online Aptitude Test (20-40 min). You will receive a web link to access this aptitude test, along with a username and password that will expire after 3 weeks.

These 2 tests should be taken alone and completed in one seating. The time commitment for this study is a total of 30-45 min for your child, and 10-15 min for you as the participant’s parent.

Your child’s participation in this study is completely voluntary. You or your child may discontinue participation at any time, without any legal, academic, or other penalty/loss of privileges. This study entails minimal risk to your child. In the unlikely event that s/he feels distressed or uncomfortable while completing the questionnaire or online measures, s/he or you can immediately withdraw from the study. Withdrawing from the study will not affect your right to receive a free online presentation as compensation or a summary of results at the end of the research project. In addition, you may request up to 3 free sessions with a licensed psychologist (faculty supervisor Patrick Petti, Ph.D.) to ensure that your child no longer experiences discomfort after participating in the study.

Please note that there is no monetary reward for participating in this study. However, participants will receive a free presentation on human intelligence and giftedness based on the most up-to-date neuropsychological findings available, as compensation for their participation. You will automatically receive a link to the free online presentation once enough participants have completed the study.

This study aims to recruit a minimum of 25 participants, with a maximum of 75, from 11/06/2017 to 5/31/2018. You will also automatically receive a free summary of the study’s results that will be emailed to you at the end of the research project (i.e. when results are published to academic databases, between 6/30/2018 and 8/30/2018).

NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY

Legal Restrictions

By California law, the guarantee of complete confidentiality would have to be broken if your child:

Describes a situation to the researcher in which someone who is a child, elder, or a dependent adult has experienced abuse or neglect,
Reports that he or she is in danger of harming themselves,
Indicates that they are a danger to others.

In all three situations, I would be obligated as a mandated reporter to ensure everyone’s safety by contacting the appropriate authorities.

Use of Personal Information and Research Data

All information will remain strictly confidential, which means that your child’s name or identity will never be used in any report or publication. Participants will receive a Record Number that will be used for all paper and electronic documents. I am the only researcher for this study, and only I will have the key to match names to Record Numbers. All paper documents will be kept in a locked file cabinet. All electronic information will be kept in encrypted files, on password-protected devices. Sensitive information including the list of participants’ names, matching Record Numbers, consent forms, demographic data, and your contact information will be stored separately from participant scores, in 2 locked cabinets located in separate rooms at the researcher’s place of residence. The highest standards of confidentiality will be strictly followed throughout the research project. When the study is completed, I will shred all paper raw data (if any) and erase all inessential electronic. The study will be considered completed when the research data is ready to be published to academic databases (between 6/30/2018 and 8/30/2018).

Multi-Health Systems

Multi-Health Systems, Inc. (MHS) is a company based in Canada that sells various standardized measures for educational, assessment, and research purposes. When participants are ready to complete the online aptitude test, they will be rerouted MHS’s online data collection system. Participants will be instructed to use their Record Number and not use their name when taking the online test. When the participant completes the online measure, MHS will produce a computer-assisted report of raw scores that will be sent to the researcher. While I will be the one to analyze and interpret the data, I will not be in control of raw data collected online by MHS. This information will remain in the MHS data bank at the company’s discretion. However, online protocols will all be de-identified (i.e. participant number instead of names). The only personal information provided will be age, ethnicity, and gender, for scoring reasons, and no other identifying information. Therefore, only I the researcher will be able to link scores with names, which will serve to protect the participant’s confidentiality.

Long-Term Storage and Use of Research Data

I, the researcher, will retain essential research data, including participants’ names, matching Record Numbers, consent forms, demographic data, de-identified electronic records of IQ, OEQ-II, and MSCEIT-YRV scores and data analyses, as well as contact information for 3 years up to 12/30/2020 for additional data analyses. If a new study using the same data is conducted, participants’ parent/guardian will be informed by email. All inessential paper or electronic data will have already been destroyed at the end of the study. All retained materials will be electronic only and stored in password-protected documents and devices. Again, documents with identifying information will always be stored separately from scores, and all private information and research data will be encrypted and locked in a secure location. The totality of remaining research data will be destroyed on 12/30/2020.