The current study examined the relationship between belief in a just world and self-reported academic resilience, and whether perceived academic competence mediated this relationship. Seven-hundred fifty-one students enrolled in a middle school and a high school (45.81% male, 15 to 16 years old) from two regions of China participated in this study. Structural equation modeling indicated that general belief in a just world was: (1) directly associated with academic resilience, and (2) indirectly associated with students' academic resilience through perceived academic competence, after controlling for the effects of gender and socioeconomic status. This study provides insight into how broader social-ideological understandings of the world (e.g., belief in a just world) may guide individual self-construals (e.g., perceived academic competence) to affect individual persistence in the face of adversity (e.g., resilience). Implications and limitations of the current study are discussed.