In Mexico, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography [
1] the population of women and men ranging in ages 12 to 17 years is around 13.7 million, which represents the 34.5% of the total population in the country. In total, 26% live in rural zone while 34.5% live in urban or semi-urban zones. An increasing number of adolescents has been reported in recent years with disorders related to depression, substance addictions, and different problems linked to mental health [
2] with an emphasis on a progressive decrease in their life satisfaction and confidence in their goals, projects and aspirations. These statistics points out the urgency of developing research that contributes to enhance adolescents’ psychological and personal well-being.
Among the essential processes that take place throughout adolescence along with the development of identity, is the shaping of life plans and purposes, the notion of one’s own existence and self-worth, the consolidation of social networks of positive links and relationships with the significant environment, and the reflection about one’s place in life and the vision of future [
3]. From the academic perspective, the insertion of adolescents into upper middle education (pre university education or preparatory in Mexico) has an impact on their personal and social development. This stage of their lives will represent new challenges that lead to personal transitions towards intellectual, socioemotional, and behavioral maturation, all processes related with psychological well-being.
The humanist perspectives of Positive Psychology have provided holistic visions of psychological well-being within the framework of personality development and its socio-cultural processes of construction [
4], conceiving it as the configuration of fundamental processes on which psychological development depends, as a key tool for shaping a healthy and creative life project and integrating oneself into society in a participative and creative manner. In this study, psychological well-being is assumed as an integration of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. The construct includes the individuals’ self- evaluation and positive appreciation of the different areas of their lives, a valuable perception of experiences and of the development of personal potentialities which goes beyond the absence of the negative states; it comprises attitudes and positions which reveal the emotional processes and perceptions of life as being more (or less) fulfilled and satisfactory [
5,
6], and would have an expression in adaptive (or maladaptive) behaviors, as well as in a wide spectrum of experiences.
Moral-García et al. [
7] have indicated the increase in research concerning psychological well-being of children and adolescents in Latin America, although they point out that studies on the adult population are still predominating in this area. The most frequently studied topics are related to the study of well-being in educational, family and community contexts, the influence of psychological variables that function as protective (e.g., self-esteem, resilience, socioemotional skills) or risk factors (e.g., anxiety, depression, personality), the cultural and gender differences and psychosocial diversity [
8]. Likewise, Casas and González-Carrasco [
9] have noted the vulnerability of adolescents and youth revealed in data from the region, showing that personal well-being and satisfaction with one’s life progressively decrease with age. Recent research highlights the diversity of problems linked to the well-being of the younger population and the need of scientific knowledge to support intervention that contributes to the problems found [
7,
8,
10,
11,
12,
13].
1.1. High Ability Adolescents and Their Psychological Well-Being
Although children and adolescents with high intellectual capacities have become in Mexico the object of growing interest in both research and intervention, there are relatively few studies dedicated to explore whether they show levels of psychological well-being that constitute positive indicators of personal growth [
14].
Definitions of high intellectual ability (or intellectual giftedness) are diverse and refers to very different perspectives. Particularly, high ability is seen in the present study as a potential in development, resulting from the progressive configuration of the individuals’ cognitive and psychological resources, as well as socio-cultural and contextual processes which lead to its further transformation into competences and talents in constant fulfillment [
15]. Students with high intellectual ability might show a heterogeneous set of cognitive skills and processes [
16] which determine a higher learning capacity compared to their same age peers, an outstanding cognitive potential manifested through the development of a singular profile of diverse intellectual aptitudes (linguistic, numerical, spatial, creative, logical), that makes their performance of cognitive tasks and activities highly flexible, creative and efficient in certain domains, and are stimulated in presence of opportunities and challenges. From this developmental-contextual perspective, the emergency of outstanding levels of proficiency and excellence depends on the interaction of endogenous and exogenous factors such as developmental, psychological, pedagogical, psychosocial, cultural [
17,
18].
There is a great amount of research focused on the development of the highly abled as a particular sensitive group, in contrast with the scarcity of studies on psychological well-being; socio-emotional and adaptive problems that might appear in adolescence have often been associated to their vulnerabilities analyzed and discussed by different studies. For instance, according to previous research [
19,
20], highly able adolescents may face difficulties in setting goals and plans related to the choices of their future work and profession, which have an impact on their lives in the contexts of middle education, higher education, or working life [
21,
22,
23,
24].
In addition, the psychological well-being of high intellectually able individuals has been a controversial topic in the specialized literature; sometimes it has been considered that they are more prone to psychological maladjustments, while other researchers present inconclusive evidences about this issue [
25]. Nonetheless, the results of the diverse studies [
26,
27,
28,
29], have shown that there is not always a direct relationship between the construct intellectual ability and the levels of socioemotional adjustment and psychological well-being [
30].
According to Ramiro [
25], high ability adolescents might face difficulties in personal, school, and social adaptation, and consequently, confronting problems with social integration and with other facilitators of conviviality and social relations. Additionally, they could be less concerned about the material conditions of their existence, and being rather focused on setting goals, objectives, and challenging aspirations, which require efforts and implies achievements associated to self-realization with an impact on their satisfaction with life. Other authors have emphasized the multicity of personal and psychosocial and cultural factors that influences the experiences of well-being in gifted adolescents [
31,
32,
33,
34,
35,
36].
With regard to the relationship between psychological well-being and sex, although many authors have not found differences between men and females [
25], others studies have shown evidence of its decrease in women, due to gender inequities and culture-related factors [
8]. Additionally, the vulnerable situation of talented women would rather suggest the existence of important differences. For example, studies that analyze the barriers in the development of gifted women [
37,
38,
39] have emphasized the lack of recognition of their abilities in the social world and in scenarios of competitiveness, for example, in scientific careers characterized by the omnipresence of men; authors have established the under-representation of the female population in the so-called STEM careers and professions due to gender stereotypes [
40,
41,
42,
43], even their relatively low participation in talent development programs compared to their male peers [
44]. The invisibility of highly able and talented women throughout history represents a significant risk factor for the fulfillment of their potential and their well-being [
45,
46]. Similarly, these studies have noticed the problems of gifted young and adult women, who are in constant tension between their personal interests and needs, and their careers and professional lives [
47]; in them, the realization of their professional projects and aspirations may be hindered by the responses of a sexist society that does not recognize the former if they do not form part of a socially and culturally established patterns [
40,
48]. In contrast, different studies [
49], have also emphasize the better performance of women in evaluations of social-emotional intelligence and competences, which may be manifested in the development of empathy, the perception of security and confidence in their social relations, or the development of their resilience [
50,
51], that can introduce important differences with respect to their companions of the same sex.
In a study focused on the socio-affective characteristics of high ability adolescents [
52], authors examined self-concept, emotional competence, social skills, self-perception of social acceptance in the school group, and emotional stability of the participants. The results highlighted the importance of feelings related to belonging to a group, the self-acceptance, and the extensive relationships established with friends and relatives, indicate that these variables determine to a high degree the emotional stability, the satisfaction, and the emotional well-being of the adolescents. The authors discussed the argument of Borges et al. [
28] concerning two major positions about psychological well-being in high ability students: the one supporting the idea that gifted show better abilities and competencies to confront the stress, the anxiety generated by emotional and social conflicts, and the one, defending the fact that they would be vulnerable at experiencing alienation and stress that affects their stability and personal well-being.
Borges et al. [
28] have sustained that high abilities and emotional well-being would be relatively independent, and that their relationships depends on the complex interactions of factors, among them, the social, cultural, and contextual ones [
53].
1.2. Family Cultural Capital, School Trajectories, and Psychological Well-Being in High Ability Adolescents
At present, theoretical and empirical approaches from social, systemic perspectives to explain the high intellectual potential has been gaining in importance [
54,
55,
56]. For instance, there has been an increase in studies that address the socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds of high abilities children and adolescents’ families come [
52,
57,
58]. This kind of studies have firmly established the relationship between socioeconomic and cultural contexts, family support to school learning and parents’ educational strategies.
In general, in Latin America, studies which focused on variables such as family socioeconomic status, schools and family cultural capital [
59,
60,
61,
62] have emphasized that the unequal distribution of higher learning’s outcomes and excellence’s achievement are significantly associated with family inequalities in both cultural and economic capital. An essential variable of the family context is the educational level of the parents, which, in turn, is closely associated with variables of the socio-economic and environments, and with what is referred as family cultural capital [
60,
63]. This relationship depends significantly on factors such as the access to cultural activities and goods at home and the education of parents, parallel to their expectations, their beliefs about education and their involvement (affective and instrumental) in educational guidance to their children [
64,
65,
66,
67,
68,
69]. The studies by Hernández and Bazán [
70] have shown the association among parents’ education levels, the type of support they give to their children’s education, and its effects on their children academic results or school trajectories.
In addition, other researchers [
71] have discussed the complex and not always consistent links between parents’ socioeconomic status, cultural level, and occupation, respectively with the greater participation or involvement in their children’s academic learning and home-school relationships. They have found that a high academic level in parents would be associated with more effective participation in their children’s education, which in turn would impact on their results and their school career.
Ordaz and Acle [
57], in a study carried out with high ability adolescents in Mexico City, identified common aspects in their families: parents had a higher level of education than the parents of the non-gifted population and they used to organize enrichment activities exposing their children to intellectual and sporting activities. However, Castellanos et al. [
52], Soriano [
72], and López-Aymes [
58], among others, have reported a large variability in sociocultural characteristics of families with gifted children in Mexican context, specifically in the state of Morelos. Hence, there are complex emerging interactions between the influence of parents, their cultural capital, and the different family dynamics that can influence the achievements of students and their academic trajectories. In a study conducted by Ledesma [
73], documenting an intervention program with parents of highly able students in a marginalized community of Cuernavaca, Morelos, most families reported a scarcity of economic and material resources, and low to medium educational level. However, parents implemented different strategies to support their children’s academic progress as well as the achievement of their goals and aspirations.
Likewise, previous studies [
35,
52,
57,
74,
75] have shown that together with the diversity of actions that parents use to support school learning, the families have different visions than their children about these strategies’ effectiveness, its role in the educational processes, and its support to psychological independence and progress.
In any case, families that promote positive relationships, cohesion and closeness between their members and contribute to the needs of their children, also have a greater significant influence on their subjective perception of the well-being, as sustained by Gómez-Azcárate [
76], Moral-García et al. [
7], Creede et al. [
77], among others. Family educational support is perceived by children and adolescents as a psychological mechanism of trust and security, which is directly related to higher self-concepts, less presence of depressive symptoms and substance abuse, in other words, to greater emotional well-being and satisfaction.
The relationship between parental support strategies, on one hand, and their socio-economic and cultural status is not direct and seems to be influenced by several factors. Actually, the educational family capital is one of them, and has shown to be a strong indicator of the involvement of parents in supporting their children’s academic achievement along their school trajectories.
Ambrose [
78] has noted the need to understand how socio-economic and cultural inequities mask or constrain the development of children’s and adolescents’ aspirations, their abilities and potential, stressing its relationships with the well-being of gifted persons. The author emphasizes the impact of socioeconomic and cultural factors on the way in which adolescents and gifted undertake their life, and also on their levels of general and mental health, their feelings of self-worthiness, their positive relations with others, and their emotional experiences of freedom and self-determination. Likewise, he highlights the potential damages in personal aspirations and perceptions of life chances in highly stratified and unequal societies, noting the risk of subverting ambitions, hiding the talents, and a wide range of health and social problems, as the frustrations related to the impossibility of attempt immediate and long-term life goals [
79].
Finally, the presence of socioeconomic and cultural inequities may undermine the education, the possibilities, and the abilities of parents to nurture and support the educational development of their children and their well-being. Thus, from various perspectives, the importance of the cultural capital of the family in the educational development and psychological well-being of children has been largely assumed [
80].
As sustained by Creede et al. [
77], there are strong theoretical bases and empirical evidences to support the links between academic achievement and the level of psychological well-being, mostly during adolescence, due to the importance that school performance and students trajectories have on future careers and lives; in addition, they have found that parental education functions as a moderator between school achievement, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being of their children, putting expectations and pressure to succeed at school, beyond their own education attainments.
In general, the studies that analyze the influence of the family in the development of high abilities and talents [
15,
57,
62,
81,
82,
83] emphasize the importance of stimulation and access to culture at home, and the existence of family supportive dynamics centered on the cultural enrichment of children and adolescents, in guiding decisions and addressing their scholastics needs [
84]. However, studies carried out in the Mexico’s context also highlight the fact that students with high intellectual potential often come from families with medium and low socioeconomic and educational levels [
57,
58,
65,
73,
82].
The present study aimed at exploring the relationship of general well-being of high intellectually able Mexican students in high school education and its different dimensions (self-acceptance, positive relationships with others, purpose in life, autonomy, environmental control and personal growth), with the composed variables (or factors) of family cultural capital and school trajectory.