Treating the emotional and motivational inhibition of highly gifted underachievers with music psychotherapy: Meta-analysis of an evaluation study based on a sequential design.

The psychological and neuropsychological characteristics of gifted children and adolescents are analysed, as well as the emotional and behavioural risks linked to this condition. A prospective follow-up study of N=93 highly gifted students suffering from school failure at the beginning of adolescence was implemented. They were treated with an integrated form of music psychotherapy and verbal psychotherapy in 5 separate groups. The methodology of treatment combined active musical improvisation with the writing of stories or the production of drawings under musical induction, followed by verbal elaboration in the cognitive-psychodynamic psychotherapeutic tradition. The evaluation was based on a mixed-methods design, combining psychometric scales, projective tests and expressive tests. Comparative pretest-posttest, correlational and multidimensional analyses were computed, using non-parametric statistical procedures adapted to small samples and data belonging to a mixed level of measurement. We present a meta-analysis of the confirmatory results in 5 subgroups. There was a significant increase in the capacity of concentration, the capacity of imaginary and symbolic elaboration, the pictorial and literary creativity, self-esteem, the quality of coping strategies, as well as in school marks. There was a significant decrease in defensive functioning and in embitterment and resignation. The latent dimensions extracted with Optimal Scaling procedures from the correlational matrixes of the Delta values of TAT and TSD-Z were meaningful at the light of the state-of-the-arts. The results of the study confirm a prior theoretical modelization coming out of the preparatory stage of the research project. They are interpreted at the light of recent findings in developmental and clinical psychology of adolescence and they open many tracks for future research.