Research on Adolescent Values and Their Relations with Adjustment in the Changing Chinese Context

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2018, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (6) : 1290-1299.

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PDF(978 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2018, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (6) : 1290-1299.

Research on Adolescent Values and Their Relations with Adjustment in the Changing Chinese Context

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Abstract

The basic values formed in the adolescence stage establish the value orientation of individual's whole life. At this stage, the youth begin to think and explore their own value orientation, and gradually form the values that can be used as criteria for judging their behavior. The formation and development of adolescent values are influenced by the overall structure and trend of social culture. A certain cultural system and social structure create values of generations of people through cultural communicators and preserver. Since the twenty-first Century, Chinese society has entered a period of rapid change and rapid development, but at present, there is a lack of effective measurement tools for adolescent's values in the complex background of Chinese social changes. Then the primary purpose of this study was to explore Chinese teenagers' characteristics of values and to develop the questionnaire of adolescent values and their associated with school and social adjustment. 780 primary (Grade 7, Grade 8) and senior high school adolescents (Grade 10, Grade 11) in Sichuan province were investigated for two times by the Adolescent' Values Questionnaire. In order to develop the values questionnaire, we conducted item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis and criterion-related validity analysis. Then, the Adolescent Values Questionnaire was used to examine the relationship between various dimensions of values and school and social adjustment in adolescent. School adjustment included academic performance, teacher ratings of school competence and learning problems. Social adjustment included peer ratings of prosocial behavior, social competence and peer preference. The results were as follows: (1) the questionnaire had good reliability and validity, and could be used as a measuring tool for Chinese adolescents' values. The structure of adolescent values included 8 dimensions: Social equality, Group orientation, Rule abiding, Family wellbeing, Friendship, Self-improvement, Fashion, Personal happiness; (2) Boys identified with Friendship more than girls. Junior high school adolescents more identified with Social equality and Family wellbeing, high school adolescents agreed with Personal happiness more; (3) Adolescent values were associated with some aspects of school adjustment. Self-improvement predicted academic performance and school competence positively; Fashion predicted negatively academic performance and prosocial behavior, and predicted learning problem positively; Family wellbeing predicted positively social competence and prosocial behavior respectively; Friendship positively predicted peer preference. The structure of Chinese adolescent values is different from that of Chinese adults and Western adolescents. The value structure reflecting the psychological components of teenagers' values are affected by individual development and social and cultural environment. The interaction of individual characteristics and social and cultural environment may promote the formation and development of adolescent' values. The social environment affects individual in it, and endows individuals with common values in the environment. Those common values are delivered by generations of generations through cultural communicators and preserver in a certain cultural system and social structure. Values in the cultural system and social structure create individual cognitive, emotional and behavioral patterns, which exert subtle influence on people and eventually form a schema shared by some cultures. The characteristics of adolescents' values are influenced by the development of the oneself, social economic development and traditional culture in the new era. The results of our research not only help us to understand the value schema of the youth in a fast changing and diversified social environment, but also help us to further explore the factors that affect the formation and development of the youth's values. The results also help us to understand the role of the formation and development of the youth ' values in their schools and social adaptation, which can promote the education of values and the healthy growth of young people.

Key words

social change / adolescent / values / school and social adjustment

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Research on Adolescent Values and Their Relations with Adjustment in the Changing Chinese Context[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2018, 41(6): 1290-1299
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