The Value Structure Of Chinese College Students

The study explored the structure and characteristics of college students’ values by new methods enhanced from the methods used in Schwartz Value Scale. In addition to screening value items which were fit for the Chinese social reality from previous studies, we also adopted situational open investigation (self-evaluation & other-evaluation) to collect more comprehensive and objective value items. The specific process of the study was as follows:(1) carried out the primary investigation, and identified 117 high-frequency value items to develop the College Students’Values Questionnaire; (2) applied the exploratory factor analysis on data of the questionnaire to explore ther structure of college students’ values; (3) revised the questionnaire, and used structural equation modeling to confirm the structure acquired in step 2. The results showed that the structure of college students’ values consist of eight factors: Factor Ⅰ Peace and Prosperity of the Country, Factor Ⅱ Character and Self-discipline, Factor Ⅲ Family, Factor IV Interpersonal Warmth, Factor V Hedonism, Factor Ⅵ Power and Social Position, Factor Ⅶ Appearance, Factor Ⅷ Self-preservation, and the eight factors can be further generalized into two second-order factors:Collective Development and Individual Development. Compared with the Schwartz’s value structure, this study confirmed the factors such as Security, Conformity, Benevolence, Universalism, Hedonism, Power and Achievement; removed the factors which were not suitable for current Chinese college students such as Tradition, Self-direction and Stimulation; and added factors not included in Schwartz’s structure such as Appearance and Self-preservation.