Does the Labelling of Intellectual Giftedness Shape Adolescents’ friendship expectations?

In France, negative stereotypes are often associated with gifted adolescents and their socialization. However, researchers have challenged the idea that high intellectual abilities are a source of relational difficulties, focusing instead on the impact of labeling (Klimecká, 2022). This study explores the effect of gifted labeling on friendship expectations. The sample included 512 students in 6^th, 8^th and 10^th grade: 74 labeled intellectually gifted, 43 non-labeled intellectually gifted, and 395 non-gifted. Participants completed Hall’s (2012) multidimensional questionnaire on friendship expectations. Each group of gifted individuals – labelled or not – was compared to a control group constructed through a propensity score matching procedure. Labeled gifted adolescents showed lower friendship expectations than their non-gifted counterparts. Additionally, cluster analysis identified four profiles of friendship expectations. Labeled gifted student were more often in the “opportunists” group. We interpret the results through the stigma of giftedness theory (Cross et al., 2012), and we propose intervention strategies to mitigate the negative effects of the gifted label on adolescent friendships.