The odds ratios indicated that SAT verbal scores and teacher emphasis on further study in mathematics were significant influences on males, while credits in Calculus and SAT mathematics scores were significant influences on females. Analyses also revealed that high mathematics ability females who intend to pursue a quantitative field were more likely to consider mathematics as useful to their future and had more credits in Calculus than high mathematics ability females who do not intend to pursue a quantitative field. This qualitative study investigated the characteristics of perfectionistic gifted male and female adolescents in a rural middle school, how they perceived their perfectionism, the influences on their perfectionism, and the consequences of their perfectionistic behaviors in the context of their perceived gender roles and their rural middle school experiences. Qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were employed to gather data from 20 gifted male and female adolescents who were identified as having perfectionistic tendencies. Findings from this study confirm the theoretical proposition that perfectionism is a characteristic of many gifted adolescents.
Several differences exist between the healthy perfectionists and the dysfunctional perfectionists.
Family, teacher, and peer influences on perfectionism were perceived as mostly positive for the healthy perfectionists, but negative for the dysfunctional perfectionists. The impact of gender roles was not found as an influence. The perceived lack of challenge by a majority of the perfectionists was manifested in their enormous efforts to perfect school work, while exerting minimal intellectual effort and receiving high grades in return. The problem of students leaving school prior to high school graduation is particularly intense in south Texas. Information was obtained from records of school districts with enrollments near or over 12,000 students.