Department of Psychology, Sapienza, University of Rome, Via dei Marsi, 78,, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Liverpool Hope University, Hope Park, Liverpool, L16 9JD, UK.
J Youth Adolesc. 2017 Oct;46(10):2157-2168. doi: 10.1007/s10964-017-0691-7. Epub 2017 May 24.
Family socio-economic status (SES) represents one of the major determinants of youth's scholastic achievement, and thus it is important to unravel the psychological factors underlining this relation. In this article, we examined youth's ability to flexibly adapt and, thus, cope with harsh environmental conditions-assessed by the construct of ego-resiliency-as a mediating mechanism in the across-time association between family SES and academic achievement. The longitudinal sample was composed of 265 (56% females) Italian students who were about 13 years old at Time 1 (T1) and about 18 years old at Time 2 (T2). In a structural equation model analysis, family SES significantly predicted ego-resiliency 6 years later while controlling for the latter's strong longitudinal stability. Students' school grades at the end of senior high school were also predicted by ego-resiliency assessed at the age of 13, controlling for grades in the last year of junior high school, gender, and initial differences in ages. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, this study provided support for a two-wave meditational model in which the relation between family SES at 13 years and later school grades at 19 years was mediated by ego-resiliency. All in all, results support the argument that being resilient, and thus being able to flexibly adapt one's own emotional state and resultant behavior, matters to school success.
家庭社会经济地位（SES）是影响青少年学业成绩的主要决定因素之一，因此，揭示这种关系背后的心理因素非常重要。在本文中，我们研究了青少年灵活适应能力，即自我韧性的构念，作为家庭 SES 与学业成绩之间跨时关联的中介机制。纵向样本由 265 名（56%为女性）意大利学生组成，他们在 T1 时约 13 岁，在 T2 时约 18 岁。在结构方程模型分析中，家庭 SES 在控制后者强烈的纵向稳定性后，显著预测了 6 年后的自我韧性。在控制初中最后一年的成绩、性别和初始年龄差异后，高中最后一年的学生成绩也可以由 13 岁时评估的自我韧性来预测。根据假设，本研究为两波中介模型提供了支持，即 13 岁时的家庭 SES 与 19 岁时的后期学业成绩之间的关系，是通过自我韧性来中介的。总之，研究结果支持了这样一种观点，即具有韧性，即能够灵活地调整自己的情绪状态和由此产生的行为，对学业成功很重要。
