The Relationship Between Shyness, Peer Attachment And School Adjustment Among Senior High Schools

As a high school student, most time is spent in school, so school maladjustment not only can affect the healthy development of students, it also has a very far-reaching impact on students' social adaptation after they enter adults. High school students are in the adolescence, a stage that physical growth, youthful germinating and awakening of self-awareness will make students more likely to show shyness. However, modest shyness has little impact on individual, but excessive shyness will bring about harmful effects on individuals. At the same time, the high school stage is the key period for the development of the mental and social skills, where in this stage students begin to expand the circle of friends,and gradually get rid of attachment from their parents, instead they try to find a new object of attachment outside the home, so as to construct a new interpersonal relationship.Meanwhile, peers become the main objects for teenagers to get emotional needs and support.Therefore, the ability to establish a good peer attachment plays a vital role in the healthy development of senior high school students. In view of the above, this study considers high school students as the research subjects, to explore the relationship between shyness, peer attachment and school adaptation, and provide reference and inspiration for high school students to better adapt to the school.This study describes the concept, the measurement and the interconnection between shyness, peer attachment and school adaptation. 605 high school students from two middle schools completed the questionnaires, which are the “Middle School Students Shyness Scale” developed by Chen Yingmin, “School Adaptation Questionnaire " made by Cui na,and “Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, IPPA”. The statistical results are as following:(1)The general level of high school students' school adaptation is above the average,and significant difference exists in grade and gender. For high school students, significant differences of grade exist in the total score and two dimensions of school adaptation, the emotion and attitude of school, conventional adaptation. Grade 1 and Grade 2 are higher than Grade 3, but no significant difference exists between Grade 1 and Grade 2; significant difference of grade also exists in the peer relationship, and Grade 2 is better than Grade 3.Significant difference of gender exists in the dimensions of academic adjustment and conventional adaptation, and girls are higher than boys in the two dimensions.(2) There is significant difference between high score group and low score group of high school students' shyness in school adaptation and its four dimensions, the emotion and attitude of school, peer relationship, teacher-student relationship, conventional adaptation.Specifically speaking: low score group of shyness is better than high score group in school adaptation and its three dimensions, which are the emotion and attitude of school, peer relationship, teacher-student relationship; and high score group of shyness is better than low score group in the conventional adaptation.(3) High school students' shyness is significantly negatively correlated with peer attachment and school adaptation; peer attachment is significantly positively correlated with school adaptation.(4) The influence of high school students' shyness on school adaptation is both direct and indirect. The total score of peer attachment and its three dimensions of peer trust, peer communication and peer alienation all plays a partial mediating role between the senior middle school students' shyness and school adaptation.