关键词: 青少年价值观, 地域差异, 学习成绩, 社会能力, 抑郁感

Abstract: Values is an explicit or implicit viewpoint of what is "worthy" (Kluckhohn, 1951), whose formation and development are influenced by the various factors of an individual's own maturity and external environment. According to Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the social macro-environment plays an important role in the development of adolescent values. The "socialist core values" proposed by the 18th national congress of the communist party of China is to convey the expectations of the macro environment for the adolescent values from the national perspective. Social changes are important factors affecting children's development. In this study, we aimed to study the development of adolescent values and their relations with adjustment variables under the context of rapid social change in China among different regions. Participants were seventh- and ninth-grade students (n=1051). Data were obtained from multiple sources and selected from Minhang district in Shanghai, Renshou county in Sichuan and Yumen county in Gansu. The Chinese Adolescent' Values Questionnaire was used to measure adolescent values. Adjustment variables included academic performance, peer ratings’ social competence and self-report’s depression. The results revealed that: (1) Except the dimension of Fashion, there were significant regional differences in other dimensions of adolescent values: adolescent values score in Shanghai and Gansu were significantly higher than that in Sichuan in the dimensions of Social Equality, Group Orientation, Rule Abiding, Family wellbeing and Self-improvement. In the dimension of Friendship, the order was Shanghai, Gansu and Sichuan. Furthermore, the Personal Happiness’ score in Shanghai was higher than that in Gansu and Sichuan. There was a significant grade differences in Self-improvement values, ninth grade was higher than the seventh grade; (2) In addition to Fashion and Personal Happiness values, adolescent values in each dimension could positively predict academic achievement and social competence, and negatively predict depression. Fashion could predict academic achievement negatively and predict depression positively; (3) There were significant regional differences in adolescent values associated with adjustment variables, specifically, the prediction of social competence by Friendship was higher in Shanghai and Sichuan than that in Gansu. Sichuan was higher than Shanghai and Gansu in the prediction of social competence by Self-improvement. The prediction of depression by Self-improvement and Fashion was higher in Sichuan and Gansu than that in Shanghai. Possible reasons were discussed in the end of the article: firstly, parents had different education levels in three regions, under the background of Chinese society, parents with higher education levels tended to impart children both collectivistic and individualistic orientation values; Secondly, the grade difference of Self-improvement suggested that the pressure of secondary school entrance exam among junior high school students. In addition, the values of adolescents in all regions were closely linked to academic performance. It should be noticed that in Shanghai and Gansu, adolescents with higher Fashion did worse in academic achievement. Moreover, Fashion could positively predict depression in Sichuan and Gansu, but not in Shanghai, suggested that the implication of adolescent Fashion values varied in different economic levels of regions. The study reveals the development of adolescent values in the new era, and provides the empirical basis for guiding adolescents to establish correct values.

Key words: adolescent values, regional differences, academic achievement, social competence, depression