TY - JOUR
T1 - The Role of Ego-Resiliency as Mediator of the Longitudinal Relationship between Family Socio-Economic Status and School Grades
AU - Alessandri, Guido
AU - Zuffianò, Antonio
AU - Eisenberg, Nancy
AU - Pastorelli, Concetta
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
PY - 2017/10/1
Y1 - 2017/10/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Academic achievement
KW - Ego-resiliency
KW - SES
KW - School grades
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U2 - 10.1007/s10964-017-0691-7
DO - 10.1007/s10964-017-0691-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 28540522
AN - SCOPUS:85019645135
SN - 0047-2891
VL - 46
SP - 2157
EP - 2168
JO - Journal of youth and adolescence
JF - Journal of youth and adolescence
IS - 10
ER -