Research With Gifted Adults: What International Experts Think Needs to Happen to Move the Field Forward

Abstract

Interest in understanding gifted adults is growing amongst health professionals, researchers, educators, and gifted adults themselves. This study brings together international experts studying and working with gifted adults to find out what they think about the state of research in the area, and what is needed to move the field forward. Three rounds of a Delphi study involving 76 experts from 14 countries identified nine themes related to obstacles, priorities and actions, and six key recommendations. General agreement was found on the need for cross-disciplinary research and a multicultural approach. A range of views was expressed about how to move forward with different and potentially conflicting conceptual definitions. The multidisciplinary panel broadly supported six recommendations, with important differences of opinion in relation to methodological preferences and conceptual definitions. Implications for further work are discussed.