Cette recherche explore le rôle de l’estime de soi et de la centration sur soi dans l’ajustement socioaffectif des enfants et des adolescents intellectuellement surdoués. Soixante-dix-huit sujets âgés de neuf à 15ans et ayant un QI supérieur ou égal à 130 au WISC-III ont participé à cette étude. Il s’agit d’une population scolarisée dans des établissements scolaires classiques et non suivie en pédopsychiatrie. L’estime de soi est évaluée avec l’inventaire de l’estime de soi de Coopersmith (SEI). Nous utilisons le Rorschach en système intégré (SI) pour évaluer la centration sur soi (index EGO). Les parents ont rempli la liste de comportements pour les enfants d’Achenbach (CBCL) qui permet d’opérationnaliser l’ajustement socioaffectif en termes d’absence de problèmes émotionnels et comportementaux (absence de psychopathologie). L’estime de soi est fortement corrélée à l’ajustement socioaffectif. Une faible estime de soi est liée à la fois à des troubles intériorisés et extériorisés. Une haute estime de soi peut être considérée comme une catégorie hétérogène. Une haute estime de soi associée à une centration sur soi excessive au Rorschach a une influence moins positive sur l’ajustement socioaffectif qu’une haute estime de soi associée à une faible centration sur soi. La combinaison haute estime de soi et centration sur soi excessive pourrait correspondre à la notion d’une haute estime de soi défensive.

There is an ongoing debate of how giftedness affects social-emotional adjustment. Self-esteem may be an indicator of social-emotional adjustment but insufficient in its explanatory capacity, especially high self-esteem which tends to produce opposite responses in regards to adjustment. A distinction between defensive and genuine high self-esteem could account for these results. In order to understand how self-esteem operates on social-emotional adjustment, it should be associated with other measurements relating to self-concern. In the Rorschach comprehensive system (CS), egocentricity index measures self-centeredness, which can be defined as the balance between self-concern and concern for others. High self-concern is associated with a neglect of the others. Operationalized here, as the interaction of high self-esteem and excessive self-concern, defensive high self-esteem should predict maladaptive outcomes.

Participants were aged from 9 to 15 years old, with an IQ greater or equal to 130 on the WISC-III. They were attending regular classes and were not in counseling or psychotherapy. Children and adolescents were administrated the Rorschach CS and the Coopersmith self-esteem inventory. Parents completed the child behaviour checklist (CBCL) which assesses general psychopathology.

Seventy-eight subjects’ data satisfy the conditions of validity of the instruments used. Gifted boys present more behavior and emotional problems than gifted girls in this study. Self-esteem predicts social-emotional adjustment. There is an interaction between self-esteem and self-concern on psychopathology only for high values of self-esteem. Gifted with high self-esteem associated with high self-concern are more vulnerable to maladjustment than high self-esteem associated with low self-concern. Gifted children and adolescents with low self-esteem experience more problems anyhow.

These findings reinforce the view that the gifted are a diverse group in terms of social-emotional adjustment and self-esteem. Self-esteem operates as a valuable resource for the social-emotional adjustment of gifted children and adolescents but only under some conditions. Low self-esteem gifted seem to be at more risk of maladjustment, but that does not mean any causal relationship. Gifted children and adolescents with high self-esteem can be considered as a heterogeneous category. High self-esteem associated to excessive self-concern has less beneficial effects on adjustment than high self-esteem associated to low self-concern.