Factors Related to Suicidal Cognitions of Academically Gifted Students in the Chinese Social–Cultural Context: An Exploratory Study

• Published in: The Gifted child quarterly Vol. 64; no. 3; pp. 204 - 218
• Main Authors: Chen, Xinjie, Fan, Xitao, Wu, Joseph, Cheung, Hoi Yan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2020; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Academically Gifted; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Processes; Cultural Context; Educational psychology; Foreign Countries; Gifted; Gifted children; Gifted education; Parent Child Relationship; Predictor Variables; Psychological Patterns; Resistance (Psychology); Secondary School Students; Secondary Schools; Sleep; Social Environment; Student Attitudes; Suicide; Suicides & suicide attempts; China; positive psychology; Chinese; suicidal cognition; academically gifted; social–cultural context; broaden-and-build theory
• ISSN: 0016-9862; 1934-9041; 1934-9041
• DOI: 10.1177/0016986220923665

From the perspective of positive psychology, this study examined the variables in four domains of personal resources under the broaden-and-build theory concerning their relationships with suicidal cognition among academically gifted students. A total of 386 academically gifted secondary school students in China participated in the study. First, the descriptive analysis results indicated that the mean score of suicidal cognition was below average, but these students were experiencing sleep deprivation problem in their daily lives. Second, based on the broaden-and-build theory, correlational analysis results suggested that most of the variables from the four domains of resources were significantly related to suicidal cognition. Most important, regression results showed that cognitive and psychological resources appeared to be the most influential for suicidal cognition. Furthermore, parents should be alerted that, for academically gifted students, parental relationship (social resource) is important, as lack of such a positive relationship (i.e., parents’ alienation) showed strong negative effect on suicidal cognition of these students. This was the first study that used the framework of broaden-and-build theory to study and compare the predictive effects of resources on suicidal cognition of academically gifted secondary school students in the Chinese social and cultural contexts.