A Theoretical And Empirical Study On School Belonging Of College Students

The need to belong is one of the primary needs of individual's whole life.Belonging is important to individuals, and it is the key influencing factor ofindividuals' academic and psychological well-bings.The college students is in the keydevelopmental period of their mind and body,and it is easy for them to have academicand psychological problems. School belonging has important meanings to collegestudents' learning, living and development. The study on school belonging will notonly enrich the belonging research and further the related theories of personalitypsychology, health psychology and development psychology, but also provide theoryguidance for mental health education, mental therapy and psychologicalconsultation.In other words, the research on school belonging has important theoreticmeaning and practical guidance value.In order to advance the study on school belonging of college students, a detailedsummary to related theories is made firstly. The definitions, theories, structure,measurement tools,influencing factors and its effects on students about schoolbelonging is retrospected.Based on the theoretic study is the empirical study on school belonging of collegestudents.The dissertation draws the following conclusions:1.The school belonging of college students has a multidimensional structure. Itconsists of cognitive,affective and behavioral dimensions. Based on the theoreticalconstruction, the school belonging scale of college students is developed.The schoolbelonging scale of college students passes through the strict test of psychologicalsurveying.It has good credibility and validity.The scale can be used as an efficient toolto evaluate the college students' school belonging.2.According to the research on the demographic characteristics of schoolbelonging,the school belonging of college students has significant differences amongsex, grade,and so on. There is a significant difference in the behavioral dimension of school belonging between male and female.The male's score is higher than thefemale's. There is a significant difference in the behavioral dimension of schoolbelonging among the students of different grades.The score of the students in gradeone is lower than those in the other three grades.There is a significant difference in thecognitive dimension of school belonging whether the student is the only child infamily.The score of the students who are the only child in their families is higher thanthose who aren't.There is a significant difference in the cognitive dimension of schoolbelonging in terms of the residence of the students. The score of the rural student ishigher than the urban students. The score of the students whose parents have higherdegree of education is lower than the students whose parents have lower degree.Thereis a significant difference in the cognitive dimension of school belonging in terms ofthe works of the students' parents. There is a significant difference in the affectivedimension of school belonging in terms of the type of the school. The score of theordinary college students is higher than the key school students.There is a significantdifference in the school belonging whether the students are the class leaders. The scoreof the class leaders is higher than other students.There are no significant differences inthe school belonging in terms of family economic situation and major type.3.The research on the influencing factors of school belonging of college studentsconsists of two component parts . The first research explores the effects of personality ,family environment , school environment , self-efficacy and coping style on schoolbelonging of college students. (1) The conclusions indicate that personality, familyenvironment, school environment,self-efficacy and coping style have efficientlypredicting effect on school belonging of college students.The neuroticism dimension ofpersonality can significantly predict school belonging of college students negatively,and the openness,conscientiousness and agreeableness dimensions can significantlypredict school belonging of college students positively.The cohesion and independencedimensions of family environment can significantly predict school belonging ofcollege students positively.The school environment can significantly predict the schoolbelonging of college students positively.Self-efficacy can significantly predict schoolbelonging of college students positively. Positive coping style can significantly predictschool belonging of college students positively. (2) Self-efficacy and coping styleperform intermediation functions in the relationship of personality,family environmentto school belonging.The neuroticism and conscientiousness dimensions of personality can significantly predict self-efficacy negatively.The extraversion,openness andagreeableness dimensions of personality, the cohesion and independence dimensions offamily environment can significantly predict self-efficacy positively.Theconscientiousness dimensions of personality can significantly predict coping stylenegatively. The openness dimensions of personality, the cohesion dimensions of familyenvironment can significantly predict coping style positively.In the second research,anintegrated model of the effects of personality,family environment,schoolenvironment,self-efficacy and coping style on school belonging of college students isestablished from the perspective of ecological system,that is theindividual-family-school ecological system model of school belonging of collegestudents.The results indicate that as the ecological subsystems of college students,personality , family and school have varying influences on school belonging , andself-efficacy and coping style have intermediary effects on this influence process.Theresults indicate that personality not only has direct effect on school belonging, but alsohas indirect effect on school belonging through self-efficacy and coping style.Familyenvironment not only has direct effect on school belonging, but also has indirect effecton school belonging through self-efficacy and coping style.School environment onlyhas direct effect on school belonging.In the last part of the dissertation,the conclusions are deeply analyzed, and thepractical value of the research is pointed out. Then the innovation and limitation of theresearch are explored based on it. The assumption of the future research is made at last.In all, the study on the characteristics and influencing factors of the schoolbelonging of college students makes it easy to understand the status and role of schoolbelonging in individual's mental life. It also can provide valuable information to thecounselors who will intervene the school belonging of college students in order toensure the college students to develop healthily.