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

Abstract

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.