Perceived School Climate And Adolescent Problem Behaviors

Adolescents are the future of the country and the hope of the nation.In recent years,problem behaviors among adolescents in China have increasingly raised social concerns.Problem behaviors not only affect the healthy physical and mental development of adolescents,but also disrupt the harmony of families,schools and society,and even lead to criminal behavior among adolescents.Therefore,it is very important to pay attention to the influencing factors and the mechanism of action of adolescents’ early externalizing problems,which can help us to prevent and intervene effectively on adolescents’ problem behaviors.School is an important place for adolescents to live and learn,and at the same time,it’s also the main place where adolescents’ externalizing problems occur.Previous theoretical and empirical studies have shown that school climate is closely related to adolescents’ externalizing problem behaviors.Therefore,exploring "how" and "when" school climate influences adolescents’ problem behaviors can help us reduce adolescents’ externalizing problems at the school level.Adolescence is also an important period in the development of moral cognition,when individuals’ moral thinking and moral judgments have established and relatively stable moral standards are established.Considering that school is an important ecological background of moral disengagement,and that moral disengagement may be an important risk factor for adolescents’ externalizing behaviors,this study will examine the mediating role of moral disengagement between campus climate and externalizing problems.In addition,the individual-environment interaction model states that the behavioral developmental outcomes of individuals can be explained by the interaction between the individual itself and the external environment,the influence of the social environment on individuals may vary from person to person.According to the risk and resilience model,individual characteristics(e.g.,self-control)may serve as risk buffers to mitigate the potential effects of situational disadvantage(e.g.,poor school climate)on adolescent adjustment(e.g.,externalizing problems).Therefore,we suggest that self-control plays a moderating role in the direct and indirect pathways by which perceived school climate influences externalizing problems.Based on previous theoretical and empirical studies,this study adopted a two-and-a-half-year longitudinal design,using the School Climate Questionnaire,the Self-Control Inventory,the Chinese version of the Civic Moral Disengagement Scale,and the Chinese version of the Adolescent Problem Behavior Questionnaire.The study was administered to 1918 junior high school students in Tinghu Experimental Middle School in Yancheng,Jiangsu Province and Dongfeng Seventh Middle School in Shiyan,Hubei Province to investigate the influence of the perceived campus climate on their externalized problem behaviors.This study established a moderated mediation model to examine whether moral disengagement would mediate the relationship between perceived school climate and externalizing problems and whether self-control moderates the direct or indirect effects of perceived school climate on adolescents’ externalizing problems,and whether there are differences in the above relationships by demographic variables such as gender.After controlling for all covariates(school,gender,age,parental culture,parental occupation,family structure,W1 moral disengagement,and W1 externalizing problems),the results of the study indicated that:(a)The school climate perceived by adolescents could directly influence externalizing problems and indirectly act on externalizing problems through moral disengagement,and the partial mediating role of moral disengagement was significant.(b)The moderating effect of self-control was not significant.And the moderating effect of demographic variables such as gender was not significant.In summary,adolescents’ perceived school climate can influence their externalizing problems not only directly,but also indirectly through moral disengagement.Neither direct nor indirect effects were moderated by self-control or demographic variables,and the results of this study were robust across populations.This study further expands the research findings on the influence of school climate on externalizing problems,reveals the complex processes and mechanisms of school climate influence on externalizing problems,and provides theoretical and practical guidance for preventing and intervening in early externalizing problem behaviors of adolescents.