Social Comparison Orientation and Social Adaptation Among Young Chinese Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Academic Self-Concept

Hualing Miao; Zhenxing Li; Yingkai Yang; Cheng Guo

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01067

Social Comparison Orientation and Social Adaptation Among Young Chinese Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Academic Self-Concept

Front Psychol. 2018 Jun 27:9:1067. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01067. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Hualing Miao^{1

2}, Zhenxing Li³, Yingkai Yang^{1

2}, Cheng Guo^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ The Lab of Mental Health and Social Adaptation, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
² Research Center of Mental Health Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
³ School of Education, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, China.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship among social comparison orientation, academic self-concept (ASC), and social adaptation. A total of 1658 Chinese adolescents (48.88% male; aged 14-18 years, M_age = 16.01 ± 0.86 years) voluntarily participated in this study and completed questionnaires. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to test the theory-driven model. The results showed that the relationship between comparison of opinion and social adaptation was mediated by ASC but that ASC did not play a mediating role between comparison of ability and social adaptation. These findings indicated that ASC could be one mechanism explaining the link between adolescents' social comparison orientation and social adaptation. Furthermore, it is possible to intervene in their social comparison orientation and ASC to improve adolescents' social adaptation.

Keywords: Chinese; academic self-concept; social adaptation; social comparison orientation; young adolescents.