Factors related to resilience of academically gifted students in the chinese cultural and educational environment

This study examined variables in three domains (personal, parent support, and peer support) for their relationships with the resilience of academically gifted students in the Chinese cultural and educational environment. The participants were 484 academically gifted students in two highly competitive secondary schools (so-called “key” schools) in a metropolitan city in southern China. The constructs measured in the personal domain were resilience, hope, creativity, and curiosity. The constructs measured in the domain of parent support were parent trust, parent communication, and parent alienation. The constructs measured in the peer support domain were peer trust, peer communication, and peer alienation. Three nested regression models showed that the personal constructs (hope, creativity, and curiosity) were all related to the resilience of the academically gifted students. Parent support variables did not exhibit predictive effects over and above that of the personal constructs, but peer support variables did show additional predictive effects over and beyond personal variables and parent support variables. Explanations and implications were discussed for the findings, and some limitations of the study were also discussed.