This master's thesis aimed to investigate misconceptions about gifted individuals that prevail among their peers and to examine the perceptions of gifted and non-gifted students regarding various aspects of social acceptance. I focused on how gifted students perceive the overall social acceptance of gifted individuals among their peers and whether these perceptions differ based on gender. Although gifted students are often well-accepted among their peers, numerous misconceptions about their socio-emotional development persist, indicating a discrepancy between actual social acceptance and peer beliefs. In the theoretical part, I defined the concept of giftedness, the characteristics of gifted students in the high school period, and mechanisms for coping with the stigma of intellectual giftedness. I also included research on the socio-emotional development of gifted individuals and their social acceptance among peers. In the empirical part, I conducted a quantitative study with a sample of 183 high school students from the Central Slovenia region, collecting data using a questionnaire developed based on relevant literature. The results showed no statistically significant differences between gifted and non-gifted students in their evaluations of various aspects of social acceptance, such as mutual assistance, participation in group work, social skills, and friendship. Both groups rated these aspects predominantly neutrally. Gifted students perceived the overall social acceptance of gifted individuals among peers as almost neutral, with small but statistically significant differences based on gender. Both groups largely supported misconceptions about gifted individuals that align with the assumption of harmonious development, which suggests that gifted individuals are generally better adjusted than their peers. No statistically significant differences between the groups were observed regarding these beliefs. The results suggest that gifted students are generally well-accepted in the high school environment. However, the neutral evaluations of various aspects of social acceptance raise questions about additional factors influencing peer relationships because the findings do not capture the full complexity of these interactions.
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