Mapping eminence and expertise of talented STEM students – A study of talent development from India

Perceived Mental Health among Identified Talented and Nonidentified Students from Indian Villages, Towns, and Cities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The results of the present study also echo those by Abdulla Alabbasi et al (2021) and Lavrijsen and Verschueren (2023) who report that intellectually gifted adolescents are more emotionally mature and thus show better resilience against psychological vulnerabilities. The authors are of the opinion that since the ITS in the present study was part of a gifted program (Roy & Mishra, 2021) that supported the students during the time of pandemic through online and phone contact, they were more likely to experience feelings of belongingness and, hence, reported less anxiety. In the case of NiS, it was likely that school and college closures resulted in prolonged periods of complete lack of academic guidance and dilution of focus which led them to suffer more.…”

“…The JBNSTS program is designed on the lines of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search (WSTS) Program, USA (currently renamed as Regeneron Science Talent Search), and like the WSTS program, JBNSTS uses original inquiry for measuring science talent in adolescents and is considered a benchmark for identifying talented students in India. The JBNSTS awardees (ITS) are selected through institutionally developed tests designed to test aptitude and creativity and are nurtured through acceleration and enrichment programs (Roy & Mishra, 2021).…”

“…This was reflected in the small number of participants from the villages, which could have affected locale-related results. Finally, it is likely that some of the NiS could have been SWGT but remained unidentified since they had not taken the JBNSTS entrance exam (Roy & Mishra, 2021) through which the ITS of the present sample were selected.…”

“…For instance, of the 85 students from villages, 32 (38%) were identified as talented students (5 females and 27 males; see Table 1). The ITS in this study were more homogenous because they were all being supported academically and financially by the JBNSTS scholarship program (Roy & Mishra, 2021) as well as emotionally through several online meetings with them during the pandemic, and therefore, significant differences among them were unlikely. The NiS group, in contrast, was more heterogeneous, comprising 53 students (39 males and 14 females).…”

The Editorial Word: Thrive

“…Ms. Anyesha Mishra, doctoral student at The College of William and Mary, Mr. Anurag Dey from the Indian Statistical Institute in West Bengal, India, and Dr. Paromita Roy from Jagadis Bose National Science Talent Search in West Bengal, India collaborated on the article “Perceived Mental Health among Identified Talented and Non-identified Students from Indian Villages, Towns and Cities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Continuing previous work from Roy and Mishra (2021), which studied talent development among STEM students in India, Mishra et al used quantitative analyses on a self-report tool measuring depression, anxiety, and stress levels to examine the impact of the pandemic on the mental health on a snowball sample of identified gifted and talented students and their peers in West Bengal, India. They compared data across locales, genders, and identification status to see if there were differences between these groups: was one locale, gender, or identification status more likely to thrive?…”