Middle School Student Leadership: Structure And Mechanism Of The Relevant Influencing Factors

Student Leadership refers to the ability of students to lead oneself to achieve individual goals, and influence the followers to follow to achieve common goals. Student leadership development has important significance to individual development and social development. This Research aims to explore the structure and mechanism of the relevant influencing factors, which can provide a theoretical basis for the development of student leadership. Firstly, based on the meta-analysis of the youth leadership literature and interviews, the conceptual model of student leadership is constructed, and the student leadership questionnaire is developed. Secondly, the present statement and characteristics of Chinese student leadership is investigated by the tested student leadership questionnaire. Thirdly, based on the related research literature, the key influencing factors of student leadership are extracted, which includes the family factors, such as authoritative parenting, family relation and school/social factors, such as extracurricular activity involvement. According to the perspectives of system theory and related theories, the influencing factors of student leadership can be viewed as a synthesis system of individual factors and environmental factors. This present study introduces the individual variable general self-concept,which plays an important role on the formation and development of student leadership, into the relationship between authoritative parenting, family relation, extracurricular activity involvement and student leadership, explored the mechanisms that how the family, school and society influence the development of student leadership. The main conclusions are as follows:1. Development and test of student leadership questionnaire and student extracurricular activity involvement questionnaire. Student leadership is constructed into six components:confidence, intelligence, value, communication skill, cooperation skill and decision-making skill. Student extracurricular activity involvement includes three aspects:campus activity involvement, social activity involvement and sports activity involvement. The data of item-analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis reflects that the two questionnaires have good reliability and validity, and can be the measurement for future researches.2. The present statement and characteristics of student leadership. (1) The student leadership is the middle-level. The dimensions of leadership develop imbalanced. In composition, the score of value, confidence, cooperation skill and intelligence were higher than that of communication skill and decision-making skill. (2) Student leadership develops imbalanced in different areas. The score of leadership in relatively developed economical area significantly higher than that in relatively undeveloped economical area. (3) Gender difference. Girl’s overall level of leadership is significantly higher than boy’s. especially on the leadership skill of communication and cooperation. (4) Grade characteristics. The junior school students’leadership shows a decreasing tendency while with an increasing tendency in the high school student’s leadership. (5) Only-child, parental family structure, social economic status, and leadership experiences are positively related to student leadership. (6) Parental family structure, education degree of mother, family economic condition and leadership experiences have positive predictable functions on the overall level of student leadership.3. Relationships between authoritative parenting, family relation, general self-concept and student leadership. The authoritative parenting, family relation, general self-concept and student leadership are positively related. Authoritative parenting, family cohesion, family expressiveness can positively predict student leadership, while family conflict has the negative impact on student leadership. General self-concept is partial mediator between authoritative parenting and leadership, while a full mediator between family relation and leadership.4. Relationships between extracurricular activity involvement, general self-concept and student leadership. The extracurricular activity involvement, general self-concept and student leadership are positively related. Campus activity involvement, social activity involvement and sports activity involvement can positively predict student leadership. General self-concept is partial mediator between campus activity involvement, social activity involvement and leadership, while a full mediator between sports activity involvement and leadership.