High hopes on China's young elite. Do social expectations influence Chinese student's mental health?

Autor/in	Hillers-Chen, Annette
Titel	High hopes on China's young elite. Do social expectations influence Chinese student's mental health? Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Hohe Erwartungen an Chinas junge Elite. Beeinflussen soziale Erwartungen die mentale Gesundheit chinesischer Studenten?
Quelle	Marburg: Tectum Verl. (2009), 183 S.Verfügbarkeit
Reihe	Wissenschaftliche Beiträge aus dem Tectum Verlag. Reihe Psychologie. 14
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; Monographie
ISBN	978-3-8288-9954-4
Schlagwörter	Erwartung; Psychische Belastung; Wahrnehmung; Epidemiologie; Ätiologie; Elite; Entwicklungsland; Akademiker; Internationaler Vergleich; Hochschulschrift; Soziales Problem; Student; Asien; China; Deutschland; Nordamerika; Ostasien; USA
Abstract	"High hopes are placed on students in China who are the first generation of only children after the introduction of the one-child policy in the Tate 1970s. But are these high hopes also responsible for the relatively high amount of mental problems among Chinese students as compared to China's general population as is often suggested? This book tries to answer the question whether there is an etiological relationship between perceived social expectations and mental problems in Chinese undergraduate students. Hypotheses derived from Lazarus and Folkman's transactional stress model (1984) and two additional models of reference predicted the importance of appraisal processes (viz., degree of distress and degree of fulfillment), freedom of choice, and Asian values as potential moderators in this relationship. Within a cross-lagged panel design for detecting causal priority I investigated a random stratified sample of N = 560 undergraduate students enrolled in Nanjing University by questionnaire at two points in time 6 months apart. In a preparatory step, the Social Expectations Questionnaire for Students (SEQ-S) referring to four sources of expectations (parents, teachers, the university as an institution, and classmates) was developed as a new measurement Instrument reliable enough for the structural equation modeling technique employed. Appraisal processes could not be corroborated as moderating factors whereas freedom of choice and Asian values had moderating effects. However, only in students who could choose their major subject of study themselves did perceived social expectations show an etiological impact on mental problems, whereas, unexpectedly, the directionality for students with low Asian values was reverse, i.e., the mental problems influenced the perception of social expectations. Furthermore, results on Chinese students' mental health itself are puzzling when compared to previous research studies in the field. The results indicate a different but yet possibly important role of self-determination theory in the Chinese context, and call for more culture-sensitive basic research on students' mental health and potential etiological conditions. Methodological challenges are being discussed." (author's abstract).
Erfasst von	GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Mannheim
Update	2010/3