Self-Perceived Creativity, Family Hardiness, and Emotional Intelligence of Chinese Gifted Students in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study assessed the self-perceptions of 212 gifted students regarding their creativity, family hardiness, and emotional intelligence. There were in general no gender and age group differences on these self-perceptions, with the exception that younger students perceived their families as more hardy than did older students. The results of regression analysis indicated that family hardiness and emotional intelligence had separate and direct effects on self-perceived creativity, and their effects were additive, rather than multiplicative, as their interaction terms did not yield significant increment in variance accounted for in the criterion of prediction. Similar results were obtained when different components of emotional intelligence were considered, with some suggestive evidence that family hardiness could interact with specific components of emotional intelligence in the prediction. Implications of the findings are discussed, and caution need to be exercised in the interpretation of these results, as data were cross-sectional and collected only on student perceptions.