SOCIAL VULNERABILITY AND GENDER IN ADULTS WITH HIGH ABILITIES

Abstract

People with high intellectual abilities present differential characteristics not only during their childhood, but also in their adult life, sometimes perceived as advantages and also as disadvantages. These people point out the importance of the recognition of their talent and the problem of not having been identified, even more so in the case of women, given the inequality in their identification compared to men. In this line, vulnerability can be defined as risk, threats, crises that can cause damage or fragility. Therefore, it is a broad concept and can occur to any person, since it is related both to external factors, situations that occur in everyday life, and to internal factors, i.e., the reaction or coping with such situations. The objective of the present research was to analyze whether adults with high capacities presented social vulnerability and whether there were differences in the levels of social vulnerability in relation to gender. The sample consisted of a total of 226 participants aged between 16 and 72 years, 58.4% of whom were men. Of the total, 139 reported having suffered some type of vulnerability in their lives. As for the main results, the relationship analyzed by means of Cramer's V correlation coefficient was significant (0.254; p = 0.001), which leads to the conclusion that women with high abilities are more susceptible to social vulnerability than men. It also provides relevant information on how talented women are approached beyond their intelligence and identification barriers, since it raises the question of where else they remain invisible and diminished.