The Effect of Psychological Suzhi on Problem Behaviors in Chinese Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Subjective Social Status and Self-esteem

Abstract

In this study, we examined subjective social status (SSS) and self-esteem as potential mediators between the association of psychological suzhi and problem behaviors in a sample of 1271 Chinese adolescents (44.5% male, grades 7–12). The results showed that SSS and self-esteem were fully mediating the relationship between psychological suzhi and problem behaviors. Moreover, the indirect effect was stronger via self-esteem than via SSS. These findings perhaps provide insight into the preliminary effect that SSS and self-esteem underlie psychological suzhi’s effect on adolescents’ problem behaviors, and also are important in helping school-teachers and administrators to develop a better understanding of problem behaviors in their schools as a pre-requisite to the development of more effective behaviors management practices from the perspective of psychological suzhi. Implications and limitations in the present study have also been discussed.

The Effects of Family Functioning and Psychological Suzhi Between School Climate and Problem Behaviors

“…In other words, individuals with high psychological suzhi reported fewer problem behaviors. This result is consistent with those of previous studies (Wu et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2017b). According to the connotation of psychological suzhi as an essential, implicit mental quality that affects adaptive and developmental behavior, it contains three personal quality dimensions: cognitive quality, individuality, and adaptability (Zhang et al, 2000;Zhang, 2003).…”

“…Furthermore, considerable evidence indicates that psychological suzhi influences student adjustment across multiple domains (Liu et al, 2016;Zhang D. J. et al, 2017). Previous studies have demonstrated that psychological suzhi is significantly inversely correlated with problem behavior in children and adolescents (Wu et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2017b) and that higher levels of psychological suzhi significantly reduce the likelihood of internalizing problem behaviors, including depression and anxiety in children and adolescents (Hu and Zhang, 2015;Su and Zhang, 2015;Liu et al, 2017a). These studies suggest that higher levels of psychological suzhi predict lower levels of problem behaviors in early adolescents.…”

<p>The protective effect of psychological <em>suzhi</em> on the relationship between school climate and alcohol use among Chinese adolescents</p>

“…This result supports Hypothesis 2, and it also supports the psychological suzhi’s function role,27 the organism–environment interaction model,28, and the risk-protective model 29. Psychological suzhi was negatively associated with adolescents’ alcohol use, which was similar to Liu et al,42 as they find that psychological suzhi negatively significantly predict adolescents’ problem behaviors. High psychological suzhi adolescents generally display high cognitive quality and individuality (ie, the ability to accurately understand and respond to objects and form reasonable beliefs), and good adaptability (ie, the ability to effectively control their emotions and behavior) 43.…”

The Effect of Psychological Suzhi on Suicide Ideation in Chinese Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Family Support and Friend Support

“…These above variables were closely related to the individual's suicide ideation. Therefore, as the core element of mental health (Liu G. Z. et al, 2017 ), psychological suzhi could also effectively predict individuals' suicide ideation. This result suggests that improving adolescents' psychological suzhi may make them feel more support from family and friends and show a lower level of suicide ideation.…”

“…In addition, studies have shown that the sense of hope is not only an effective negative predictor of suicide ideation, but also plays a significant role in regulating ruminant thinking and suicide ideation (O'Keefe and Wingate, 2013 ; Tucker et al, 2013 ), which means that hope can reduce the possibility of suicide ideation. Although no research has directly investigated the relationship between psychological suzhi and suicide ideation, many empirical studies have shown that adolescents' psychological suzhi can significantly positively affect self-esteem and hope (Liu G. Z. et al, 2017 ; Peng et al, 2020 ) and significantly negatively affect negative emotions such as depression and anxiety (Zhang et al, 2017 ). Therefore, we speculate that compared to specific mental health indicators such as self-esteem, depression, and hope, psychological suzhi as a comprehensive quality may play a more basic role, but the specific impact mechanism still needs to be further explored.…”