Resilience Among Gifted Students: Are they Prone to Anxiety During Pandemic?

BACKGROUND: Resilience is an important protective factor for psychological wellbeing. According to the previous literature, physical activity level and digital game playing are likely to impact anxiety level. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to identify the role of resilience, doing physical activity, and playing digital games on gifted children's anxiety levels during the Pandemic period in 2021 in Turkey. METHOD: The sample consisted of 199 gifted students. Anxiety was measured using the Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory. Resilience was measured using The Brief Resilience Scale. The physical activity and online/digital game-playing were measured using two open-ended questions. RESULTS: Results provided evidence that resilience had a strong negative association with anxiety among gifted students during the Pandemic period (β = -.59, p<.001). Doing physical activity was associated with anxiety among gifted boys (β = -.16, p<.001) but not girls. Finally, digital game playing was associated with anxiety among neither girls nor boys. CONCLUSIONS: These results reflected the importance of resilience for anxiety.