The Role of Psychosocial and Contextual Factors in Academic Talent Development: In Search of General and Specific Developmental Processes

Empirical testing of talent development models or contextual developmental models of giftedness is enhanced by longitudinal research that considers contextual factors as well as individual/psychological factors. Relying on findings from the longitudinal TALENT project in Flanders, we aimed to shed light on the role of social-contextual factors (i.e., relationships with teachers, peers, and parents) and psychological (i.e., motivational) factors in the developmental process of transforming high cognitive ability into high achievement levels. Also, we aimed to gain insight into which developmental processes are specific to high-ability students and which are generalizable across ability levels. The findings provided longitudinal evidence for the key role of social-contextual and motivational resources in the process of academic talent development. Overall, they call for further integration of giftedness models with general developmental theories and elaboration of the role of social-contextual factors.