Effects of COVID-19 on Gifted Students’ Quality of Life (QOL-GSS): Scale Development and Application*

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable scale to measurethe effects of COVID-19 on gifted students’ quality of life (QOL-GSS) and to analyseits effects on some variables such as gender, age, education level, parents’ educationlevel, monthly income and number of children in the family. To this end, a scale wasdeveloped and its reliability and validity were measured through a number ofmeasures. The internal consistency was used to evaluate the reliability of the scalewhereas its validity was analyzed by a factor analysis. Regarding exploratory factoranalysis, the result of the KMO test was .90 and Bartlett test χ2 statistic was3055.306 (p < .001). Path coefficients of the items varied between .55 and .89 andCronbach’s Alpha (α = .76) coefficients indicated that the data obtained from thescale (QOL-GSS) was reliable. Results overall indicated that COVID-19 affectedgifted students’ quality of life slightly in all dimensions of QOL-GSS. In addition, theeffect of COVID-19 on gifted students’ quality of life showed significant differencesby gender, education level, mother’s education level, father’s education level,monthly income and number of children in the family.