PARENTS' ROLE IN THE ACADEMIC MOTIVATION OF STUDENTS WITH GIFTS AND TALENTS

Parents play a key role in developing their children’s academic motivation, and parents of children with gifts and talents also may face additional parenting challenges that are less commonly faced by parents of average-ability learners whose needs are more readily met in the school setting. School psychologists may be charged with addressing these issues, despite having little or no training on the needs of families of high-ability learners. We use the lens provided by the self-determination theory of motivation to consider how social–environmental climates created by parents can promote or impede the academic motivation of students with gifts and talents. C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Parents play a key role in developing and supporting their children’s academic motivation. This holds true for children at varied levels of academic abilities, including those identified as gifted and talented (Campbell & Verna, 2007; Grolnick, 2003). For the purposes of this article, we define “gifted and talented” broadly; we include in this category both those students formally identified as “gifted” or “talented” in the school setting, as well as those who show evidence of high potential in one or more specific academic or nonacademic areas relative to other children of similar age and experience. From an early age, parents socialize their children toward certain academic orientations that impact achievement motivation. Even as children move into adolescence and young adulthood, their parents continue to influence academic motivation (Guay, Marsh, Senecal & Dowson, 2008). Recent research (e.g., Garn, Matthews, & Jolly, 2010; Jolly, Matthews, & Nester, in press; Morawska & Sanders, 2009; Mudrak, 2011) on the parenting practices of gifted and talented children reveal discrepancies with tenets of motivational theory (Dweck, 2007, 2012; Roth, Assor, Niemiec, Ryan, & Deci, 2009). Using evidence-based theories of motivation as a foundation to counsel parents of gifted children could potentially facilitate more effective learning environments within the home. Parents of children with gifts and talents face additional parenting challenges that are less commonly faced by parents of average-ability learners, and school psychologists may face the challenge of how to address these issues without having had any substantial amount of training related to the needs of these families. For example, parents of students with gifts and talents may have questions such as: how do you simultaneously acknowledge your child does possess higher levels of ability than other children, while also stressing to your child the importance of effort in learning?; how do you cultivate your child’s talent without over-managing his or her development?; and how do you set appropriate goals for your child while maintaining a flexible approach that is responsive to your child’s individual differences? Morawska and Sanders (2009) identified in the literature additional issues, including a lack of support, negative community responses, and a greater perceived burden of responsibility among parents of children identified as gifted compared with other parents whose children had not been identified. In this article, we describe the role that parents play in their gifted children’s academic motivation, and we highlight some effective strategies school psychologists can share with parents for