Maras, Pamela, Moon, Amy ORCID: 0000-0001-5795-3206 and Zhu, Liqi (2012) Chinese and British adolescents’ academic self-concept, social identity and behaviour in schools. BJEP Monograph Series II: Psychology and Antisocial Behaviour in Schools, 9. pp. 93-122. ISSN 1476-9808

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Abstract

Background. Findings from research suggest that young people in mid-adolescence in England are more likely to display behavioural difficulties and also become more negative about school and more positive about friends than their older or younger peers. This tendency has been described as the ‘Year 10 effect’ (Maras et al., 2007) and is yet to be investigated in other cultures.

Aims. To explore adolescents’ social identity, academic self-concept and behaviour in China and England and to consider the developmental changes related to these factors, specifically, whether the ‘Year 10 effect’ is found in English and Chinese samples.

Sample. 1088 students aged 13 to 16 years in England and 354 students aged 12 to 16 years in China participated in the study.

Method. Participants completed two self-report measures: (1) the ‘About Me’ Questionnaire (Maras, 2002; Maras et al., 2006); and (2) the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997).

Results. Year 10 students in both samples reported higher levels of behavioural difficulties, higher identification with peers and more disaffection from school and learning than their older peers. SDQ difficulties for English students were adequately predicated by social identification with peers and academic self-concept but not for the Chinese students. Prosocial behaviour was predicted by identification with peers and family and academic effort in students in both countries.

Conclusions. The ‘Year 10 effect’ was found in both English and Chinese samples. However, there were differences between the samples in how ‘about me’ variables predicted difficulties.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	[1] Findings reported in this paper were first discussed at the BJEP Current Trends Conference 2009: Psychology and antisocial behaviour in schools. [2] Paper published in the BJEP Monograph Series II: No. 9 - Psychology and Antisocial Behaviour in Schools. Edited by Pam Maras, Jim Demetre, Amy Moon and Andrew Tolmie. [3] Publisher's description of content for this volume: Young people's behaviour in and out of school currently receives a great deal of academic, media, and government attention with many commentators expressing concerns on the 'state of youth'. However, whilst antisocial behaviour in schools is a topic of major international concern, there is a surprising dearth of work focused on psychological explanations for its occurrence, or on interventions founded on such explanations. This monograph is intended to address this deficit, by drawing together evidence from psychology for understanding troublesome behaviour in schools, focusing on behaviour in general, specific types of behaviour such as bullying, developmental disorders such as autistic spectrum disorder and ADHD, and on different explanations for social emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBDs) such as social identity, information processing and social competence. The primary focus is on empirically based psychological theory and research evidence and its relation to interventions in school; findings from data gathered from a range of countries including Brazil, China, North America, Spain and the UK are reported.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	adolescents, Chinese, British, China, UK, academic self-concept, identity, behaviour
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences
Related URLs:	Publisher Publisher
Last Modified:	13 Dec 2019 10:44
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/6738

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