Research on Coping Methods and Support Systems of Parents of Gifted Children in Turkey

Saranlı A. G.

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND FUTURE-EGITIM VE GELECEK DERGISI, cilt.0, sa.11, ss.1-13, 2017 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 0 Sayı: 11
  • Basım Tarihi: 2017
  • Dergi Adı: JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND FUTURE-EGITIM VE GELECEK DERGISI
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-13
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: families of gifted children, social support systems, coping methods, relationships with the environment
  • TED Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Family members have a critically important role in gifted children's lives, providing lifelong support and striving to help them achieve their true potential. Nevertheless, in developing countries about gifted education, feedback from families of gifted children always focus on negativities, obstacles and problems. There has been very little research studies on positive experiences for the families of gifted children in Turkey, including how they have been able to support their children and solve their problems within the constraints of our culture and environment. However, finding out about and sharing different support systems and problem-solving methods used by parents who have been able to positively cope with numerous attributes associated with gifted children and who believe they have been able to provide correct guidance will enlighten other families as well as educators and will help us better understand problems and solutions that are specific to this special group of children. To this end, in-depth interviews with parents of four officially identified gifted children in middle and high school ages were conducted using a semi-structured interview method. Answers from parents were classified and organized within a thematic framework according to predetermined themes using the descriptive analysis method from among applicable qualitative data analysis methods. Answers from these interviews were categorized under main themes such as coping skills, sources of social support and relationships with the environment. Themes that were extracted from the interviews with the parents were defined based on the "Ecological Family Theory". Results from this study are expected to provide valuable information that will help families of gifted children, educators and researchers by revealing different support systems and coping methods that parents of gifted children have been able to use successfully in Turkey.