新时代青少年价值观及其与社会、学校和心理适应的关系:三个地域的比较

Values of Adolescent across Regions in China: Relations with Social, School, and Psychological Adjustment

本研究采用问卷调查的方法考察了上海闵行、四川仁寿、甘肃玉门三地共1051名7、9年级青少年,旨在探究在新时代背景下,不同经济和文化发展水平的地域之间,青少年价值观的发展特点及其与适应的关系。结果发现:(1)除时尚潮流维度外,青少年价值观各维度上均存在显著的地域差异;超越进取维度存在年级差异,9年级高于7年级;(2)除时尚潮流和享受快乐维度外,青少年价值观各维度在不同地域间均能正向预测学习成绩、社会能力,负向预测抑郁感;时尚潮流能够负向预测学习成绩,正向预测抑郁感;(3)青少年价值观某些维度对适应的预测存在显著的地域差异:同伴友情对社会能力的预测,上海、四川高于甘肃;超越进取对社会能力的预测,四川高于上海、甘肃;超越进取、时尚潮流对抑郁感的预测,四川、甘肃均高于上海。研究在一定程度上揭示了新时代青少年价值观的发展现状,为理解青少年价值观与健康心理的关系,引导青少年树立正确的价值观提供了一定的实证依据。

Values represent explicit or implicit views of what is "worthy", and the formation and development of values are influenced by personal and social factors. According to the Ecological Systems Perspective(Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), environmental conditions play an important role in the human development in socioemotional and cognitive domains. Consistent with this perspective, the ongoing massive social changes in China may have considerable implications for the development of adolescent values. In this study, we aimed to investigate adolescent values and their relations with indexes of adjustment in the context of rapid social changes across regions in China.Participants were seventh-and ninth-grade students(n=1051) in high schools in Shanghai, Sichuan province’ and Gansu province. Data were obtained from multiple sources. The Chinese Adolescent Values Questionnaire was used to measure adolescents’ values. Adjustment data included those on academic performance from school records, social competence from peer assessments, and depression from self-reports. The results showed significant regional differences in adolescent values. Specifically, adolescents in Shanghai and Gansu had significantly higher scores than adolescents in Sichuan on Social Equality, Group Orientation, Rule Abiding, Family Wellbeing, and Self-improvement. Adolescents in Shanghai had higher scores than adolescents in Gansu, who in turn had higher scores than adolescents in Sichuan on Friendship. Furthermore, the Shanghai sample also had higher scores on Personal Happiness than the Gansu and Sichuan samples. There was a significant grade difference in Selfimprovement: the ninth-grade students had higher scores than the seventh-grade students. In terms of relations between values and adjustment, adolescent values on Social Equality, Group Orientation, Rule Abiding, Family Wellbeing, Friendship, and Self-improvement positively predicted academic achievement and social competence, and negatively predicted depression. Fashion negatively predicted academic achievement and positively predicted depression. Significant regional differences were found in relations between values and adjustment variables. The relation between Friendship and social competence was stronger in the Shanghai and Sichuan samples than in the Gansu samples; the relation between self-improvement and social competence was stronger in the Sichuan samples than in the Shanghai and Gansu samples; and the relations between self-improvement and Fashion and depression were stronger in the Sichuan and Gansu samples than in the Shanghai samples.The results suggest that social-contextual factors may be involved in the formation of adolescent values. For example, parents in different regions varied on educational levels, and parents with higher educational levels tend to encourage their children to develop both group-oriented and self-oriented values(Liu, Fu, Li, Liu, & Chen, 2018). The grade difference on Self-improvement might be related to the greater pressure that the ninth-grade students faced due to the senior high school entrance examination. Academic performance was significantly associated with adolescent values in all regions, suggesting the two systems might be closely linked. In addition, Fashion was negatively associated with academic achievement in Shanghai and Gansu and positively associated with depression in Sichuan and Gansu. These results indicated that values of Fashion might have negative functional meanings in Chinese adolescents but the specific adjustment problems associated with the values might be shaped by the context of the region. The findings of this study may have practical implications for school education.