Promoting Wellbeing and Development in High-Ability Youth

Dear Colleagues,

Taking a broad view of what constitutes giftedness and/or talents, this Special Issue recognizes that high-ability youth navigate unique developmental pathways that can significantly influence their psychosocial wellbeing. While they often demonstrate advanced cognitive, creative, physical or academic abilities, these strengths are experienced within a social milieu that can contribute to the emergence of a range of wellbeing considerations. This Special Issue of Youth aims to examine how wellbeing, adaptive development, and psychosocial adjustment unfold among gifted and talented young people across diverse contexts.

The challenges that high-ability youth have been noted to encounter—such as social isolation, heightened stress, under-stimulation, or mismatched educational environments—can intersect with their developmental needs in complex ways. Additionally, systemic factors such as inequitable identification practices, limited access to appropriate learning opportunities and cultural or familial expectations can further shape developmental trajectories. These issues become even more salient during the critical periods of adolescence and emerging adulthood, when identity formation, social belonging and increased academic pressures converge.

This Special Issue seeks to explore how a young person’s giftedness and/or talent interacts with environmental influences and broader systemic conditions to impact the wellbeing and development of gifted and talented youth. We are particularly interested in work that examines protective factors—such as supportive educational climates, mentoring relationships, culturally responsive identification and programming, or strengths-based interventions—that foster resilience, positive identity development and healthy socio-emotional functioning.

We welcome empirical, theoretical, and applied research that investigates:

• the psychosocial development of high-ability youth
• The impact of high-ability on identity development
• how educational practices, enrichment opportunities, and talent development systems support or impede wellbeing;
• the roles of family, peers, educators, and communities in promoting healthy development;
• experiences of gifted youth from marginalized or underrepresented populations, including issues related to equity and access;
• intervention, prevention, or programming models aimed at supporting wellbeing, resilience, and optimal development in gifted and talented youth.

Through this Special Issue, we aim to advance understanding of the diverse experiences of high-ability youth and to showcase strategies that nurture both their exceptional abilities and their holistic wellbeing.

Dr. Genevieve Thraves
Dr. Susan Corwith
Dr. Rosalind Walsh
Dr. Catherine Wormald
Guest Editors

Ms. Sarah Oluk
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Youth is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• high-ability
• wellbeing
• psychosocial development