Raging hormones in the gifted - social and emotional development in gifted and non-gifted adolescents

How do pubertal changes during adolescence influence social and emotional development of gifted (IQ>130) and typically developing children and adolescents? The project focuses on two important processes for mental well-being that are characteristic for the transition from childhood to adolescence, namely fear extinction learning and peer relations.

BrightWave is a longitudinal project in which we will follow 200 pre-adolescents, gifted and typically developing pre-adolescents, during the major transition of going from primary school to high school (Dutch system). For more information about the BrightWave project, see our project website (in Dutch).
 

During the Covid-19 pandemic we included an additional wave in which we investigated the wellbeing of adolescents and the support they feel from their friends and family. We followed 54 adolescents  9-12 years old during the initial lockdown and school closures. We continued to follow them during the second school closure.

The results of the COVID-19 daily diary study, our first BrightWave paper -  "Mood variability among early adolescents in times of social constraints: a daily diary study during the COVID-19 pandemic" - is published. We report on mood variability during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Collaborators: 


Societal partners:

  • Incontexto; clinical practice for diagnostics and therapy of (presumably) gifted children