AGU Researcher Calls for a School Environment to Enhance Psychological Empowerment, Self-differentiation Among Gifted Students

AGU Researcher Calls for a School Environment to Enhance Psychological Empowerment, Self-differentiation Among Gifted Students

Within the requirements for obtaining a PhD of Philosophy in Gifted Education from the College of Graduate Studies (CGS) at the Arabian Gulf University (AGU), researcher Ms Muna Jassim Mohamed Rashid Al Estad discussed the findings of her dissertation on the relative contribution of self-differentiation and life skills in predicting psychological empowerment among gifted students. The study aimed to determine the differences between students in psychological empowerment, self-differentiation, and life skills, among gifted and ordinary students in the State of Kuwait, according to student ranking, gender, and academic grade.The researcher used the descriptive correlational method by measuring psychological empowerment, self-differentiation and life skills after verifying their psychometric properties. This she applied to a sample of 467 ordinary and gifted students during the first semester of the academic year 2022-2023.The results of the meta-analysis using cluster averages indicated differentiation among the research sample in the degree of self-differentiation and life skills according to psychological empowerment levels, which varied between low, medium, and high. Three-way analysis of variance showed statistically significant differences in psychological empowerment based on the variable of student ranking, and in self-differentiation based on the variable of gender.The results of the stepwise regression analysis showed that critical thinking and