Academic brilliance: Through the eyes of Hong Kong adolescents

Abstract

The study explored whether attitudes of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents towards academic brilliance, studiousness and athleticism mirrored the importance of education, and hard work associated with Asian values. Tannenbaum's (1962) methodological framework and instrumentation was adapted to enable cross-cultural comparison of Hong Kong results with Western ones. A total of 223 Hong Kong secondary school students participated in the study. Adolescents' reactions towards eight stimulus characters differing in ability, effort and athleticism were analysed. The three-way analysis of variance showed that Hong Kong adolescents expressed very clear preference for athleticism and non-studiousness. Academic brilliance was favoured over average ability. A statistically significant interactive effect was found between academic brilliance and studiousness, and brilliance and athleticism. © 1999 A B Academic Publishers.