The Test Of Correlation Between Self-concept And School Adjustment

Self-concept, the consciousness and the appraisement that a student holds towards his own body, capability, value, etc, will directly influence his thought, behavior, emotion, as well as his adaptability to the changing school environment around him. Self-concept development is the primary psychosocial task for the high school students. This study took peer relationship, social behavior and students' academic performance as indices of school adjustment to examine the characteristic of self-concept development among high school students and the relationship between self-concept and school adjustment.We included a total of 450 students from Grade One to Grade Three in three common high schools of Hanbin District, Ankang. Measurement instruments adapted in the study were the Self-concept Test, the Peer Relationship Scale, and the Social Behavior Scale. The academic performance index used was the average score of Chinese, Mathematics and English in the latest midterm exams. Based upon our data, we concluded:(1) There were no significant gender differences in self-concept, neither any interaction between gender and grade.(2) The students payed more attentions to the peer relationship when grade increased. During their daily interactions, most of them felt various level of loneliness.(3) There were significant gender differences in social behavior. Compared to their male peers, female high school students showed higher prosocial and leadership behavior, and less aggressive behavior.(4) The academic performance was negatively correlated with body self-concept but not any other dimensions. Body self-concept also showed significant predictive effect on academic performance.(5) The social self-concept was negatively correlated with both popularity and loneliness, and showed significant predictive effects on both of them. The body self-concept was positively correlated with and showed significant predictive effects on popularity. In addition, we found grade had significant predictive effect on peer relationship.(6) The social self-concept was positively correlated with and had significant predictive effects on both prosocial and aggressive behaviors. The body self-concept showed significant predictive effect on prosocial behavior. Moreover, we found that gender and grade had significant effects on social behaviors.