Resiliency predicts academic performance of Lebanese adolescents over demographic variables and hope

Abstract

This paper aims at investigating resiliency factors (sense of mastery, sense of relatedness, and emotional reactivity), and hope as predictors of academic performance, while controlling for gender, tuition fees, and age. Differences in resiliency factors across gender and tuition fees were also explored. Participants were 599 Lebanese adolescents (330 female), ranging from ages 11 to 19. Resiliency factors predicted academic performance over gender, tuition fees, and hope, and played a more important role in the academic performance of middle/late than early adolescence. Gender differences were found in emotional reactivity (marginal) and sense of relatedness, with females scoring higher than males in both cases. Finally, adolescents with low tuition fees scored lower than those with middle tuition fees on emotional reactivity and marginally lower than those with high tuition fees on sense of relatedness. The relevance of these findings to resiliency among adolescents is discussed, along with implications and recommendations for future research and educational practice.