DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2552368/v1
Background: This study examined the role of self-support and self-esteem in the chain mediating between family functioning and school belonging among Chinese junior high school students.
Methods:The questionnaire survey was used on 741 students from first to the third grade of junior high school students to collect data on the Family Function Scale, the Self-support Scale, the Self-Esteem Scale, and the School Belonging Scale. Mediating efect analysis was used to test the hypothesis.
Results: (1) there were statistically significant differences in family function, self-support, and school belonging by grade level; (2) there were significant positive correlations between family function, school belonging, self-esteem, and self-support in junior high school students; (3) self-support mediated the effect of family function on school belonging, and self-esteem mediated the effect of self-support on school belonging; (4) Self-support and self-esteem play a significant chain mediating role between family functioning and school belonging, with the mediating effect accounting for 8.53% of the total effect.
Conclusion: the family function could affect school belonging directly and indirectly through self-support and self-esteem.
The school is a field that highlights life, stimulates youth, and promotes energy. In social life practice and academic research, "sense of belonging" is of great significance, and the study of "school sense of belonging" has received significant attention [1]. School belonging means students think they are liked, respected, and valued by others [2]. It can effectively predicts students' self-concept [3]. By understanding the factors closely related to school belonging, school policymakers can make accurate predictions through critical factors, to evaluate the level of students' school belonging through these relevant indicators [4]. According to Magnusson and Stattin [5], individual function and development are closely linked to the social, cultural, and physical environment. The individual is in the integrated, compound, dynamic "man-environment" system. When middle school students develop a sense of belonging to the school environment, it is more conducive to their own growth and development. Therefore, it is meaningful to study middle school students' school belonging.
Family Function and School Belonging
Family is an important life field for everyone, providing people with a sense of belonging [6]. In general, students with good family backgrounds have a higher school belonging than students with low-income family backgrounds. The family function is a description of the characteristics of the family. The family function includes two parts: family cohesion and family adaptability. Family cohesion is the emotional bond between family members. Family adaptability refers to the quality and performance of family leadership and family organization [7]. Some studies have pointed out that primary school students' family cohesion can directly affect their school sense of belonging [8]. There is a significant positive correlation between family cohesion and school belonging of middle school students [9]. Overall, the status of adolescent family functioning predicts the quality of school belonging [10]. Based on the above information, we proposed hypothesis H1: The family function of junior high school students can positively predict the level of individual school belonging.
Self-Support and Self-Esteem as Mediators
The self-support personality is considered a native concept of an upbeat personality in China [11]. Self-support personality has the characteristics of interdependence, which is derived from Confucius' doctrine of the mean and the "collectivism" and "interdependence" advocated in Chinese culture [12]. The family is the place where individuals grow. In the relationship between students' families and self-support, previous studies have pointed out that the parent-child relationship of senior primary school students is significantly positively correlated with self-support behavior [13]. The parenting style of parents is closely related to the level of children's self-support behavior [14]. The parental rearing style has a significant positive impact on the self-support personality of middle school students [15]. And, there is a significant positive correlation between self-support personality and family function of junior high school students [16]. These studies support the influence of family on students' self-support.
At the same time, previous studies have pointed out that self-support is a self-consciousness accompanied by self-development [17]. Self-support reflects the individual's psychology and behavior toward themselves and others. When individuals can act on their own, make their own decisions, judge themselves, commit themselves, and take responsibility for themselves. There is a significant positive correlation between self-concept and school belonging . Personality and family environment affect college students' sense of belonging [18]. Thus, it can be seen that the formation of self-support personality for individuals is influenced by the family environment, which in turn impacts the individual's school belonging. Based on the above information, we proposed hypothesis H2: self-support of junior high school students is an intermediary variable between family function and school belonging.
Self-esteem is how one feels about oneself [19]. Self-esteem is one of the most widely studied topics in psychology and counseling [20]. Self-esteem is directly connected with personal social networks, activities involvingoneself, and the information one hears about themselves from others [21]. Self-esteem plays a positive role in adolescents' life satisfaction [22]. At the same time, in the relationship between self-esteem and family function, previous studies pointed out that the survey of Korean college students aged 19 to 26 found that family function is related to self-esteem [23]. As for chinese students, there is a significant correlation between adolescent family function and self-esteem [24,25,26]. This showed that family function plays a significant role in developing individual self-esteem.
In the relationship between self-esteem and school belonging, previous studies have pointed out that the collective self-esteem of migrant children is significantly positively correlated with school belonging [27]. The self-esteem of rural junior high school students can completely predict school belonging [28]. Middle school students with high self-esteem can give positive evaluations of themselves, and this will facilitating the individual's adaptation to the school environment and the development of school belonging. Based on the above information, we proposed hypothesis H3: self-esteem of junior high school students is an intermediary variable between family function and school belonging.
In the study of the relationship between self-support and self-esteem, previous studies have pointed out that self-support and self-esteem are part of the individual's self-concept, self-support emphasizes the way of self behavior, and self-esteem emphasizes the emotional experience of self. From the perspective of individual development, self-support comes first, and then self-esteem [29]. This showed the sequence of the two in the individual's psychological development. Previous studies have pointed out that the level of self-support can predict the level of explicit and implicit self-esteem [30]. Based on the above information, we proposed hypothesis H4: self-support and self-esteem of junior high school students play a chain mediating role between family function and school belonging.
The specific hypothetical model diagram is shown in Figure 1.
Participants
Before conducting the survey, the research team underwent uniform training to ensure that the researchers followed scientific principles and were able to demonstrate a friendly attitude and efficient actions during the survey. The subjects were selected from five junior high schools in Hunan Province by random sampling. A total of 850 questionnaires were distributed, and 741 valid questionnaires were obtained, with an effective rate of 87.18%, including 328 boys(44.26%), 413 girls(55.74%), 246 in grade one(33.20%), 311 in grade two(41.97%), 184 in grade three(24.83%), and the age was13.82 ± 0.91.
Measures
Family cohesion and adaptability scale
This study used the Chinese version of the scale prepared by Olson, after being revised by Fei et al. The scale consists of 30 questions, divided into two dimensions, cohesion, and adaptability. There are 16 questions on cohesion, such as "In our family, we do all recreational activities together," and 14 questions on adaptability, such as "When conflicts arise in the family, the members make compromises with each other in a humble manner." A 5-point scale was used, with one definition "not", two definition "occasionally", three definition "sometimes", four definition "often ", and five definition "always". The higher the score, the better the family function [31]. In the present study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.97.
School Belonging Scale
The Chinese version of the School Belonging Scale was prepared by Goodenow and revised by Pan Dafang et al. The scale has 18 items, divided into three dimensions, including a sense of belonging, identity, and school attachment, and has good reliability and validity. Among them, there are seven items for a sense of belonging, such as "The students at this school take my opinions seriously"; 8 items for identity, such as "The people at this school are friendly to me"; and three items for school attachment, such as "I can do what I want at this school". I can be my authentic self at this school". A 5-point scale was used, with one being "never like this", two being "slightly not like this", three being "average," four being "slightly like this," and five being "always like this" [32]. In the present study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.95.
Adolescent Student Self-support Personality Inventory
The Self-support Personality Inventory for Adolescent Students developed by Xia et al. was used, which consists of two subscales, the Personal Self-support Scale and the Interpersonal Self-support Scale, each with 20 items [33]. For example, the question of personal independence, "Likes to arrange things to be done in advance", and the question of interpersonal independence, "Usually afraid to go to someone's house alone". The scale is scored on a 5-point scale, with higher scores indicating higher levels of the trait in question [34]. In the present study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.87.
Self-esteem scale
The self-esteem scale was revised by Yang et al. on the self-esteem scale developed by Rosenberg [35]. There are ten items (items 3, 5, 9, and 10 are reverse scoring, due to cultural differences between China and the West, question 8 was changed to positive scoring). The scale is scored on a 4-point scale (one point for "very nonconforming", two points for "nonconforming", three points for "conforming", and four points for "very conforming"). For example, the question item, "I feel that I am a valuable person, at least on the same level as others". The higher the total score obtained for the scale, the higher the level of self-esteem.
Data analysis
The study used SPSS 22.0 to analyze the data, starting with descriptive statistical analysis, followed by correlation analysis, and then testing for mediating effects of self-support and self-esteem. The Hayes (2013) PROCESS macro (Model 6) was evaluated during the chain mediation model examination. Bootstrap procedures were conducted to test the chain mediation model. Five thousand bootstrap resamples were set to calculate the 95% confidence intervals of the indirect effects in all statistical analyses. In the data analysis, the respondents’ gender, grade, and age were used as control variables.
Test for common method deviations
All variables in this study were measured using the questionnaire method, so the issue of common method bias was examined according to the Harman one-way test. The results showed that there were 21 factors with characteristic roots greater than one, and the percentage of variance explained by the first factor was 23.20%, a rate much lower than the 40% recommended by Podsakoff et al. indicating that there was no serious common method bias in this study.
Descriptive Data and Correlations
In this study, the differences in family function, self-support, self-esteem, and school belonging were not statistically significant in terms of gender and age; statistically significant differences in family function, self-support, and school belonging in terms of grade level, and no statistically significant differences in self-esteem, as shown in Table 1. The correlation analysis of family function, school belonging, self-esteem, and self-support of junior high school students showed a significant positive relationship between family function, school belonging, self-esteem, and self-support of junior high school students, as shown in Table 2.
Table 1 Inter-grade difference test for each variable (N=741)
First |
Second |
Third |
F |
|
family function |
69.23±11.06 |
64.78±11.88 |
66.95±10.76 |
10.56** |
self-support |
171.52±19.47 |
167.88±19.05 |
171.30±17.73 |
3.19** |
self-esteem |
30.61±5.15 |
30.11±5.77 |
30.74±5.47 |
0.96 |
school belonging |
121.44±21.05 |
116.80±22.02 |
116.26±20.14 |
4.29* |
*P<0.05,**P<0.01,Same below。
Table 2 Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis for each variable (N=741)
M±SD |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
family function |
118.21±21.36 |
1 |
|||
self-support |
169.94±18.93 |
0.56** |
1 |
||
self-esteem |
30.43±5.49 |
0.58** |
0.60** |
1 |
|
school belonging |
23.39±5.90 |
0.63** |
0.53** |
0.55** |
1 |
Serial Multiple Mediation Analyses
This study used SPSS macros developed by Hayes to test the chain mediating role of self-support and self-esteem between family function, and school belonging, controlling for grade-level conditions. The family function was used as the independent variable, school belonging as the dependent variable, and self-support and self-esteem as mediating variables. Through multiple hierarchical regression analysis using Model 6 in the SPSS Procesee plug-in, the study showed that family function significantly predicted self-support, family function, and self-support significantly predicted self-esteem. Family function, self-support, and self-esteem significantly predicted school belonging. After adding self-support and self-esteem, the effect of family functioning on school belonging remained significant, so there was a mediating effect of self-support between family functioning and school belonging. Similarly, there is a mediating effect of self-esteem between self-support and school belonging. Thus, it can be seen that self-support and self-esteem play a chain mediating role between family functioning and school belongingness, as shown in Table 3.
The Bootstrap method was adopted for testing the confidence interval estimates, using the SPSS macro prepared by Hayes, where Model 6, with 5000 replicate samples, and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. The study’s results showed that the indirect effects generated by each path, corresponding to confidence intervals that did not include 0, were statistically significant (p < 0.05), as shown in Table 4.
Table 3 The chain mediation model between family function and school belonging (N=741)
Variables |
self-support |
self-esteem |
school belonging |
||||||
β |
SE |
t |
β |
SE |
t |
β |
SE |
t |
|
Constants |
109.49 |
3.71 |
29.49** |
-0.69 |
1.42 |
-0.48** |
8.84 |
2.83 |
3.12** |
family function |
0.50 |
0.027 |
18.17** |
0.094 |
0.0085 |
11.076** |
0.21 |
0.018 |
11.66** |
self-support |
0.11 |
0.0096 |
11.91** |
0.11 |
0.021 |
5.24** |
|||
self-esteem |
0.52 |
0.073 |
7.07** |
||||||
R2 |
0.31 |
0.45 |
0.50 |
||||||
F |
165.10** |
198.35** |
185.14** |
Table 4 The analysis of mediating effects of self-support and self-esteem between family function and school belonging (N=741)
Effect |
BootSE |
95%CI |
Amount of effect(%) |
|
Direct effect |
0.21 |
0.018 |
[0.18,0.25] |
61.76% |
family function - self-support - school belonging |
0.054 |
0.12 |
[0.033,0.78] |
15.88% |
family function - self-esteem - school belonging |
0.049 |
0.0094 |
[0.032,0.69] |
14.41% |
family function - self-support - self-esteem - school belonging |
0.029 |
0.0058 |
[0.019,0.042] |
8.53% |
Total intermediation effect |
0.13 |
0.014 |
[0.11,0.16] |
38.24% |
Total effect |
0.34 |
0.015 |
[0.31,0.38] |
In this study, the three variables of family function, self-support, and school belonging differed significantly by grade level, and self-esteem did not differ significantly by grade level dimension. Among them, the school belonging scores showed a decreased trend as the student's grade levels increased. Consistent with previous studies, school belonging scores were higher in all lower grades than in higher rates [36,37]. This showed that junior high school education should pay attention to the cultivation of junior high school students' school belonging, and the cultivation of junior high school students' school belonging should be carried out throughout the whole process of education in junior high school.
In this study, self-support and self-esteem showed a chain mediating role between family function and school belonging, and there are three mediating paths. Junior high school students with high family function can feel the cohesion between family members and the adaptability of the family to environmental changes, which will help junior high school students develop self-support personality, which in turn will promote the development of self-esteem. Cultivating these psychological qualities facilitates students' successful completion of school tasks and ultimately enables junior high school students to belong the campus. In real life, families encounter a wide variety of things, and it is not all smooth sailing. For example, families experience sad or happy events, but if family members can bond closely together regardless of whether they are sad or happy, what is formed in this way is a close family relationship [38]. Previous research indicates that well-functioning families are better able to meet the needs of their family members. Everyone has their own needs, and for junior high school students, the family is where junior high school students live for a long time and where they can grow by absorbing nutrients. In other words, the family is where the individual develops self-support [39]. Students grow up in an atmosphere of well-functioning families, which provides for the development of self-support personalities.
There was a mediating effect of self-esteem between self-support and school belonging. Self-support and self-esteem are components of personality, and the two are not isolated but are interrelated. Previous studies have pointed out a significant correlation between self-support and self-esteem [40]. Self-esteem is also associated with a sense of belonging to the school [41]. Based on this, when junior high school students have a self-support personality, it will help them to develop self-esteem personality, and a good personality will allow individuals to create a sense of belonging to the school. This is theoretically logical, because when junior high school students have self-support personalities, they can become independent from the people, things, and objects they used to depend on, and become independent enough to make their own decisions, start their actions, and solve their problems. These will promote the development of individual self-esteem, feel self-esteem and enhance self-esteem in the process of individual's continuous self-support. Therefore, a good self-support personality enables a good self-esteem personality, which improves school belonging.
Finally, self-support and self-esteem are chain mediators between family function and school belonging. School and family are both essential life arenas for middle school students. Intimate family relationships and reasonable family adjustment contribute to the development of students' psychological qualities. Middle school students with high family function tend to be more self-support, able to become independent from external dependence, and keep moving toward self-esteem and a cheerful self. Although school is different from family, middle school students are still exploring themselves and realizing themselves in school. The good psychological qualities of growing up, such as self-support and self-esteem, help students to belong to school.
Previous research has also indicated that helping academically challenged youth improve their sense of belonging in school can improve their academic completion [42]. As can be seen, the factors that affect middle school students' sense of belonging in school explored in this study have both theoretical and practical value. Along with school education for junior high school students, emphasis should also be placed on family education and the role of a nurturer so that good family functions can be formed, followed by the development of students' psychological qualities of self-support and self-esteem, and the promotion of junior high school students' integration of themselves into the campus community.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the teachers for their organization of this survey, including but not limited to Sheng Wu from Secondary School Affiliated to Hunan Normal University, and the middle school students for their participation in this survey.
Authors’ Contributions
BX: study design, paper writing; LP: paper writing; SS: study design; MO: study design, data collection; BP: data analysis; ZY: data collection .
Funding
This study was supported by grants from an educational research project of Changde City, Hunan Province, “Practical Study on the Development of Self-support Behavior of Primary School Students” (CDJYKY201926).We acknowledge all the participants for their participation.
Data Availability
The datasets used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable reques
Ethics approval and informed consent
This study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Electronic written informed consent was obtained from all participants before the survey. The research protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Review Committee of Hunan University of Arts and Science.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.