Duke TIP research assistant awarded prestigious fellowship
Contact: Leslie Maxwell
Duke University Talent Identification Program
(919) 668-9127
leslie.maxwell@duke.edu
Kristen Foster Peairs receives fellowship for gifted education research
Updated: July 15, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. — Kristen Foster Peairs, a research assistant with the Duke University Talent Identification Program and Duke University psychology graduate student in clinical psychology, has been awarded the prestigious Esther Katz Rosen Fellowship from the American Psychological Foundation.
Peairs received the fellowship to fund her dissertation research on the social world of gifted adolescents. Her research will examine multiple dimensions of gifted youth’s peer relationships in hopes to better understand their social and emotional development. In addition, she will study the ways in which gifted adolescents with poor peer relationships compare to gifted adolescents with positive peer relationships and to non-gifted adolescents. Her research is based on decades of research that demonstrates a link between poor peer relationships and a negative impact on academic, behavioral and psychological adjustment.
Through her research, Peairs hopes to contribute to the understanding of the social relationships and social development of gifted youth, ultimately providing support frameworks to help those youth who have negative experiences with their peers.
“Receiving the Rosen Fellowship will allow me to focus my research interests toward understanding previously ignored aspects of the socioemotional development of gifted youth,” Peairs said. “These facets of adolescents’ social development have important implications for creating effective prevention and intervention programs targeting at-risk gifted children and adolescents. My hope is that this research will contribute toward establishing such programs for gifted youth.”
As a Duke University graduate student and Duke TIP researcher, Peairs works closely with Dr. Martha Putallaz, her advisor and Duke University professor of psychology and Duke TIP executive director.
“We are incredibly proud of Kristen and the honor she has received,” Putallaz said. “Her research will help Duke TIP — and the broader gifted education community — learn about strategies for aiding in the social and emotional development of gifted youth.”
The Rosen Fellowship is given to support activities and research related to the psychological understanding of academically gifted students. The APF is a grant-giving subsidiary of the American Psychological Association, the world’s largest association of psychologists.
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About Duke TIP: The Duke University Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) is a non-profit educational organization that is recognized as a leader in identifying and serving the educational needs of academically gifted youth. Through identification, recognition, challenging educational programs, information, advocacy and research, Duke TIP provides resources to gifted students, their parents, educators, and schools for the development of the students’ optimal educational potential.
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