Children from low-income families tend to have significantly higher emotional and behavioral problem (EBPs) than children from higher-income families (Baek and Yoo, 2017; Choi et al., 2019). Empirical studies have shown that adolescents with higher-than-average levels of EBPs are associated with a variety of developmental, social, and behavioral delays, as well as myriad mental and physical health diagnoses (Jokela et al., 2009; Slopen et al., 2013; Jones et al., 2015). Childhood EBPs are also associated with negative mental states such as anxiety, academic under-achievement, delinquency, and depression (Broidy et al., 2003; Bahmani et al., 2016). This link between low-income students and the proclivity for academic under-achievement and the associated EBPs can be particularly devastating for an adolescent in the Chinese school system (Lu et al., 2018; Chen et al., 2018). In China, those who come from lower socioeconomic status families often find that education is their primary way to improve their lives and obtain a well-paying job in the competitive Chinese labor market (Ye, 2015; Chen et al., 2018).

Gifted children can face some of the same challenges as children exhibiting EBPs. As defined by the United States Elementary and Secondary Education Act, gifted and talented students “…give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities” (Zipp, 2016). In an academic setting, high achievement capability is marked by rapid uptake of new information, complex/multi-faceted thought processing, and creative problem solving (Coleman and Cross, 2005). As a policy measure, many consider youth who perform in the top 10% in a given domain and in relation to a regional norm to be a likely indicator of those who would most benefit from specialized interventions, programs, and services (Coleman and Cross, 2005).

Although gifted students are exceptionally endowed with abilities that correspond to success in an academic setting, they are equally at risk with non-gifted peers of experiencing social and emotional difficulties that could impair their proper psychological development (Solow, 1995). Giftedness would seem to add a layer of complexity to their development, leading to some unique psychological issues (Renati et al., 2017). The set of emotional difficulties that prevail among the gifted population can include social isolation, perfectionism, anxiety, rejection, intolerance of criticism, and resistance to authority (Freeman, 1983; Gardynik and McDonald, 2010; Guenole et al., 2013). Gifted children might also experience unrealistic expectations from teachers and parents, high test anxiety, and difficulties adapting to their social environment (Eren et al., 2018). Some gifted children struggle with the speed at which their minds work compared with their emotional maturity, as well as the constancy of their constantly active mind (Tolan, 2018).

Many of these difficulties are compounded for gifted children born into poverty. It has been shown that, in the United States, elementary and middle schools with large numbers of low-income students lack the advanced programs in elementary-school settings required to prepare gifted students to engage in and succeed at definitive educational experiences in high school and early college (e.g., Algebra II-level math classes and beyond) that are determinative of high academic achievement in adulthood (Burney and Beilke, 2008). Low-income schools also often do not have the funds to train educators in how to work with gifted and talented students, which can lead to high-achieving students becoming bored with the subject material (Freeman, 1983; Haberline and O’Grady, 2018; Olszewski-Kubilius and Corwith, 2018).

The gifted-student population, although faced with a unique set of emotional challenges, are at similar risk to the broader adolescent cohort of experiencing negative outcomes as a result of EBPs (Chen et al., 2018). Despite the strong potential for EBPs to compromise a healthy developmental course, further research has shown that adult outcomes for youth strongly exhibiting these risk factors are widely varied (Sroufe et al., 2005; Masten, 2018). A factor that appears to mitigate the downside risk of problem behaviors in gifted youth as they develop into adults is their individual capacity for resilience (Chen et al., 2018).

Health professionals used to focus on interventions based on pathology where they fixed deficits or problems (Wagnild and Collins, 2009; Masten, 2014). However, a growing body of research emphasizing the protective effects of resilience has shifted health professionals’ focus from “fixing” deficits toward assessing an individual’s strengths and then developing an intervention built on that individual’s existing capabilities (Masten, 2014; Wagnild and Collins, 2009). Resilience is a dynamic mental process marked by the ability to engage in positive, adaptive behaviors that allow for successful emotional and social development in the face of significant adversity or stress (Wagnild and Young, 1993; Luthar, 2003; Rutter, 2012). Researchers are interested in resiliency because of its strong presence in individuals that exhibit adaptive functioning amidst life circumstances that put them at risk of developing maladaptive psychopathologies (Wagnild and Collins, 2009; Bethell et al., 2014; Masten, 2018).

The resiliency theory is a strengths-based conceptual framework of child and adolescent development (Rutter, 1993; Fergus and Zimmerman, 2005; Montero-Marin et al., 2015). It emphasizes on positive individual and contextual variables that interfere or disrupt developmental trajectories from risk to negative problems and outcomes. Individual variables are referred to factors that reside within individuals such as self-efficacy, while context variables refer to factors outside individuals such parental or neighborhood support. Resilience theory posits a conceptual framework on explaining how individual and contextual variables increase resilience and that resilience consequently and effectively cope with EBPs among individuals.

We focus on two individual variables that might increase resilience in this study: individual mindfulness and life skills. Mindfulness can be defined as purposely paying attention to the present moment and reacting in a non-judgmental fashion Kabat-Zinn (2003). The receptive and open state of awareness stemming from mindfulness can benefit both mental and physical health (Black and Fernando, 2014; Bluth and Eisenlohr-Moul, 2017). Many articles have linked mindfulness to positive effects on relationships, emotions, and behaviors (Keng et al., 2011; Edmonds et al., 2014; Mak et al., 2018). Cultivating mindfulness skills through targeted interventions can have positive effects on both adolescents’ and adults’ psychological adjustment (Bergin and Pakenham, 2016; Ramler et al., 2016; Cutright et al., 2019). Mindfulness can also lead to better self-regulation, which has been shown to be a protective factor for children from low socioeconomic statuses (Flouri et al., 2014). Gifted children, in particular, can feel additional stress because of the speed at which their minds work. Mindfulness helps individuals have better control over their own focus and attention. Gifted children can also spend a lot of time in their minds, and mindfulness can help the gifted child to slow down, and focus on their bodies and how they are responding to their environments (Tolan, 2018).

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines life skills as “abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life” (World Health Organization [WHO], 1997, p. 1). Life skills are made up of various interrelated components working together and reinforcing one another. These skills, essential in mitigating the constant challenges faced by growing adolescents, foster an individuals’ self-efficacy, self-esteem, psychosocial competence, and holistic self-development. Adolescents transitioning to adulthood face challenges which include pressure to abuse alcohol, abuse drugs, or participate in high-risk sexual behaviors (Botvin and Griffin, 2004; Nasheeda et al., 2018). Life skills allow individuals both to avoid these potentially damaging behaviors and to maximize other important protective factors (UNICEF, 2015). Life skills can be enhanced in an individual through well-designed interventions (Botvin et al., 1980). The Life Skills Training (LST) program effectively reduced behavioral problems in youth (Botvin et al., 1980; Botvin and Griffin, 2014; Velasco et al., 2017). The LST program has proven effective for youth from a variety of socioeconomic levels (Botvin and Griffin, 2004, 2014). In general, the LST program teaches skills which are closely linked to key factors that promote resilience and positive emotional outcomes in youth.

The empirical literature has provided ample evidence of supporting theoretical framework of the resilience theory that mindfulness and life skills improve individual mental awareness and behavioral skills that lead to increased level of resilience (e.g., Huppert and Johnson, 2010; Jha et al., 2017; Kummabutr et al., 2017; Botvin LifeSkills Training, 2018; Huang et al., 2019) and that high level of resilience is associated with low level of EBPs among children and adolescents (e.g., Ziaian et al., 2012; Arslan, 2016).

However, current research on above relations tends to be based on studies in western countries and relatively lack a discussion of a strengths-based approach of resilience framework. Focusing on gifted low-income adolescents in China, this study utilize the resilience theory and hypothesize that individual mindfulness and life skills increase level of resilience which in turn reduces EBPs of adolescents.

The sample’s descriptive statistics can be seen in Table 1. The average age of the 152 adolescents was 16.2 and 63.2% of them were male. On a scale from 14 to 84, where the standard deviation was 91, the average mindfulness score was 59.5. The average score was 40.1 for life skills on a scale of 10–50 where the standard deviation was 3.7. On a scale of 7–98, where the standard deviation was 11.9, the average resilience score was 72.8. The average SDQ score was 13.4 out of 42, with an average of 3.7 out of 18 for behavioral problems and 9.7 out of 24 for emotional problems.

The Pearson correlation analyses of variables is shown in Table 2. The SDQ level showed significant correlation with resilience (r = −0.51, p < 0.001), mindfulness (r = −0.51, p < 0.001), life skills (r = −0.34, p < 0.001), and female (r = 0.19, p < 0.05). Further analyses, upon the request, showed that the correlation coefficients between female and behavioral and emotional problems, separately, were 0.03 (p > 0.05) and 0.23 (p < 0.01). Resilience levels significantly correlated with mindfulness (r = 0.46, p < 0.001), and life skills (r = 0.34, p < 0.001). Level of mindfulness was significantly correlated with level of life skills (r = 0.26, p < 0.01). The findings of the correlation analyses were in line with the hypothesized model.

Structural equation modeling was then used to examine the hypothesized model. Model-fit indices show that the observed data correspond well to the model. The Chi-square value was 3.48 (p = 0.18), RMSEA was 0.07, and CFI was 0.98. Figure 2 presents the standardized coefficients of the model, estimated by SEM, with bolded lines indicating the coefficients significant at p < 0.05 level and dotted lines indicating no statistical significance. The results indicated that resilience partially mediated the effects of mindfulness and life skills on EBPs. Specifically, mindfulness (β = 0.39, p < 0.001) and life skills (β = 0.23, p < 0.01) were directly associated with high resilience. Resilience was directly and negatively associated with the score of EBPs (β = −0.30, p < 0.001). Mindfulness (β = −0.33, p < 0.001) and life skills (β = 0.15, p < 0.05) were also directly associated with reduced EBPs. The estimated coefficients for gender and age on level of resilience were not significant in this sample.

Table 3 decomposes the standardized effects on both adolescent EBPs and resilience. Both indirect effects of mindfulness (β = −0.12, p < 0.01) and life skills (β = −0.07, p < 0.05) were significant on EBPs, a finding consistent with resilience having mediated the effects of mindfulness and life skills on EBPs. The total effects life skills and of mindfulness on EBPs were −0.45 (p < 0.001) and −0.22 (p < 0.001), respectively. These results provide evidence that resilience partially mediates the positive effects of mindfulness and life skills on emotional and behavior problems in adolescents. Mindfulness and life skills reduce emotional and behavior problems directly as well as indirectly through their influence on resilience.

We further examined the above model by separate SDQ subscales for emotional problems and behavioral problems, as shown in Tables 4, 5, respectively. The findings are generally in line with the conjoined finding reported above. There were, however, some notable differences. With respect to emotional problems as presented in Table 4, the above hypothesized model did not fit the data well without controlling for gender. In this case, the direct effect of trait female on emotional problems was strong (β = 0.15, p < 0.05). Accordingly, the total effect of female on emotional problems was significant (β = 0.18, p < 0.05), indicating female adolescents experienced relatively higher levels of emotional problems. The hypothesized model shows good explanatory power on behavioral problems in isolation as well. In this case, there was no direct effect of female on behavioral problems. However, the direct effect of mindfulness on behavior problems (β = −0.42, p < 0.001) was larger than that found for conjoined emotional and behavior problems presented in Table 3, and the direct effect of life skills on behavioral problems became small and insignificant (β = −0.05, p > 0.05).

Our results support the resilience theory and indicate that individual mindfulness and life skills have strong direct and indirect effects on reducing EBPs for a group of low-income and gifted adolescents in China, with indirect effects arising through their positive effects on individual resilience; and all three variables are shown to have direct effects on reducing EBPs. The total positive effect of mindfulness on the presence of EBPs is larger than the effects of life skills and resilience.

Mindfulness practice can be shown to produce heightened attention. Its positive effect, then, is produced when individuals use enhanced focused attention to deliberately turn their attention toward sensory awareness in the present moment. Negative self-evaluation, often linked to negative internalizing behaviors, can thus be mediated by this present-moment, non-judgmental awareness. Distress tolerance also increases with mindfulness practice (Farb et al., 2012). Concurrently, mindfulness may induce a relaxed state and different responses, even when individuals fully experience the emotions arising from distressing stimuli (Hölzel et al., 2011). Accordingly, adolescents with relatively strong abilities in mindfulness will be able to reduce their automatic responses to, or divert their attention from, stressors that can lead to their exhibiting negative internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

Life skills also show strong overall effects on the incidence of EBPs, as well as reducing emotional problems in isolation. Although the direct effect of life skills on behavioral problems was not statistically significant, its indirect effect through resilience on behavioral problems was significant. The insignificance of the direct effect of life skills on behavioral problems may be an area of future research interest. This finding may result from the unique life circumstances of the present sample: students are housed in a boarding school environment under a semi-military disciplinary regime. It is conceivable, then, that the externalizing behavioral problems were low as a result of the environment and the observed effect (or lack thereof) might not be because of an inherent lack of association with the four life skills components: self-control, refusal, relaxation, and assertiveness.

It is evident that both mindfulness and life skills in this sample of gifted and low-income adolescents significantly and directly increased their resilience, a finding that potentially lessens the effects of adverse childhood experiences on later development through positive adaptation (Bethell et al., 2014). Together with the finding that resilience has strong, direct effects on the occurrence of EBPs, our findings point to a potential positive effect on development of an intervention for gifted adolescents that is shown to develop stronger mindfulness and life skills components. Such an intervention would be expected to strengthen their ability to face daily challenges by increasing individual resilience. All three factors would be expected to contribute to lower EBPs.

This study finds that female gifted adolescents exhibit higher levels of emotional problems than the male gifted adolescents in this sample. Chinese school-aged children are expected to have academic success and any school failures can bring shame and disgrace upon the family. Indeed, children who show EBPs through heightened internalizing symptoms are perceived as problematic and can face tremendous stigma from teachers and peers (Fu et al., 2016). Given the high pressure of upcoming college-entrance examinations and the uniquely strong imperative felt by gifted low-income students to succeed (Chan, 2003; Burney and Beilke, 2008), these findings indicate the urgent need for intervention and services for female students in this sample and beyond.

This study included several limitations that warrant further investigation. First, the data originated from a sample of 152 adolescents from one school who were chosen by a single, invariant set of admission criteria. Utilizing a larger and more representative sample is warranted in future research. Second, although we hypothesize a causative relationship, our results based on cross-section data only establish associations not necessarily causations: we propose that life skills and mindfulness, related to an individuals’ ability and awareness, positively affects their resilience and exhibition of EBPs. However, it is also possible that the relationship between these skills and EBPs will be shown to be bi-directional. Further longitudinal research to establish causation is thus necessary. Third, all information was self-reported by the students and therefore subject to intended and unintended reporting errors. Future study can consider triangulation of data collection, including sources from teachers, friends, and parents to valid the data. Fourth, life skill scale had a low Cronbach’s alpha, 0.54. Further study is warrant to investigate the extent of the scale items in Chinese culture. Fifth, although all instruments were from reliable scales, common method bias was not tested due to resource limitation. Further study can examine other forms of instruments to test the common method bias. Finally, future studies, combining both life skill training and mindfulness components in their interventions, could be employed to better explore the synergistic effect of these two field’s core concepts on adolescent well-being. In spite of these limitations, this study ranks among the first to link the path association among life skills, resilience, mindfulness, and EBPs in gifted, low-income adolescents.

The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Review Committee, School of Public Administration, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Written informed consent from the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

C-CH took full responsibility for leading the research, data analysis, and writing the sections “Methods” and “Results.” YC took full responsibility for the literature review and publication process, and shared responsibility for the section “Discussion” with HJ, CL, and CO. HJ took full responsibility for the section “Introduction.” MS took full responsibility for manuscript revision.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.