The Influence Of Personality On The Social And Cultural Adaptation Of Urban Mobile Adolescents: The Mediating Role Of Loneliness

Presently in Shanghai,with many non-Shanghai natives moving to here for a number of reasons. These reasons can range from moving to give their child better education,or to find a job. During this process,children who migrant with their parents are exposed to two cultures——the original cultural background and the new culture,the sociocultural adaption is becoming increasingly important. Therefore,this study used bidimensional acculturation model as a framework to examine the influence of personality and loneliness to the sociocultural adaption. At the same time,we also explore the mediation effect of loneliness on the relationship between personality and sociocultural adaption.In this study,we used cross sectional study method,questionnaire survey was conducted for 950 junior middle school students by revised-CSAS(Cultural and Social Acculturation Scale), CPAI-A(Cross-cultural [Chinese] Personality Assessment Inventory) and Loneliness Scale,623 questionnaires were from non-local students, 601 effective questionnaires were selected. K-mean cluster analysis,Person correlation analysis and Structural equation model were used in the study to explore the acculturation strategies adopted by the immigrated adolescents and how loneliness of immigrated adolescents affect their personality and sociocultural adaption.Results were as follows:(1) The most acculturation strategy adopted by the second generation urban immigrants was “integration”,while the ‘‘marginalisation’’ strategy was least,‘‘separation’’ and ‘‘assimilation’’ were in the middle.(2)Significant gender difference is found in immigrant youth’s personality and sociocultural adaption,girls score higher than boys,however,youth’s loneliness don’t find this difference.(3) There are significant positive correlations between personality and sociocultural adaption, in contrast, negative correlations were found for the relationship between loneliness and personalit, and sociocultural adaption.(4)Loneliness play a mediated role between personality and sociocultural adaption, which manifest as loneliness partly mediated the association between personality and sociocultural adaption(integrate host culture); loneliness partly mediated the association between personality(Social Potency) and sociocultural adaption(maintain original culture); Loneliness has a full mediation effect between personality(Dependability,Emotional Stability and Interpersonal Relatedness) and sociocultural adaption(maintain original culture).In conclusion,these results supported the hypothesis that loneliness is a mediator between the personality and sociocultural adaption. The obtained conclusion has the certain implications for the present situation of the non-Shanghai juniors’ sociocultural adaption and the development of personality and the influence of loneliness. It also offers some references and suggestions for the educators. Implications for future research are discussed.