The Relationship Between College Students’ Filial Piety Cognition And The Meaning Of Life:Chinese Achievement Motivation And Chinese Multiple Self-esteem As The Intermediary

Nowaday college students are oppressed by "life predicament" problems such as a sense of meaningless life, autism, self-mutilation, drug abuse, doing harm to others and suicide. According to Erickson’s theory of psychological society, college students are in the physical and mental development period when they begin looking for self-value and the significance of existence. Hence, one of the most predominant issues for college students is to solve the problem of life’s meaning.Based on Chinese traditional culture of filial piety, this research attemps to explore possible ways of enhancing life’s meaning for college students. With Chinese achievement motivation and Chinese multiple self-esteem of indigenous mental characteristics as the intermediary respectively, it explores the relationship between filial piety cognition and the meaning of life through constructing an intermediary model.A total of500undergraduates in Wuhan were investigated. They completed the filial piety cognition scale, Chinese achievement motivation scale, Chinese multiple self-esteem scale and the meaning of life scale.The research results are as follows:(1) As the grade increases, college students’ filial piety cognition score has a downward trend; liberal arts students score higher than science and engineering students in protecting and honoring parents; female students have a higher score than male students in supporting and respecting parents, protecting and honoring parents; as the grade increases, college students’ sense of life’s meaning and their search for meaning are increased without significant difference among grades; liberal arts students experience the strongest meanig of life, and their sense of life’s meaning is stronger than that of science students and medical students.(2) As the grade increases, social-oriented achievement motivation is gradually weakened while the individual-oriented achievement motivation is enhanced; female students’ social-oriented achievement motivation is stronger than male students’; freshmen’ individual ability and independent self-esteem is higher than juniors’, while their interpersonal relationship and popularity self-esteem is higher than sophomores and juniors’; male students’individual ability and independent self-esteem is higher than female students’, while female students’ social identity and moral self-esteem is higher than male students’.(3) There is significantly positive correlation among filial piety cognition, Chinese achievement motivation and the meaning of life. The correlation of the same nature also occurs among the filial piety cognition, Chinese multiple self-esteem and the meaming of life.(4) The direct effect test result shows that the filial piety cognition has significantly positive prediction for the meaning of life.(5) The mediating effect test results demonstrate that:the filial piety cognition has significantly direct effect on the meaning of life; the Chinese achievement motivation has significantly indirect effect on the interaction between the filial piety cognition and the meaning of life, and this indicates that the Chinese achievement motivation plays a partially intermediary role in the interaction between the filial piety cognition and the meaning of life. At the same time, the Chinese multiple self-esteem has a significantly indirect effect on the interaction of the filial piety cognition and the meaning of life, and it also plays a similarly intermediary role in the interaction between the other two factors.Based on the research results, this research suggests that moderate education of filial piety should be carried out in universities. It will help to stimulate college students’ achievement motivation and promote individuals’multiple self-esteem, ultimately enhancing college students’ meaning of life.