Adolescents With High IQ and Their Adjustment in Adolescence and Midlife

Abstract

The psychological and social adjustment of high-IQ adolescents (top 10%) were studied for a Swedish cohort born in 1955 (N = 1,326 with IQ data). The focus was on comparing high-IQ adolescents to adolescents of average IQ with regard to their adjustment in adolescence and 30 years later in midlife. The research design enabled us also to study linear and nonlinear relationships of high IQ to adjustment. In adolescence, those with high IQ had better adjustment than those of average IQ in most studied adjustment areas, most strongly so for school achievement, capacity to concentrate, and absence of unhappiness. Data from official records showed that higher IQ was related to less alcohol, criminal, and mental problems in childhood and young adulthood. In midlife, the adjustment differences between those of high IQ and those of average IQ were usually nonsignificant, but for some adjustment indicators, adjustment was moderately worse for the high-IQ group, for instance in global life satisfaction and in satisfaction with friend relations. Controlling for school achievement absorbed almost all significant IQ-adjustment associations, which supports the idea of school achievement as a mediator between IQ and adjustment.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors are grateful to the editor for many helpful suggestions.