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The Relationship between Self-Concept and Mental Health among Chinese

College Students: The Mediating Effect of Social Adjusting

Article in Open Journal of Social Sciences · January 2016

DOI: 10.4236/jss.2016.412011

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 Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2016, 4, 118-125
http://www.scirp.org/journal/jss
ISSN Online: 2327-5960
ISSN Print: 2327-5952

The Relationship between Self-Concept and

Mental Health among Chinese College Students:
The Mediating Effect of Social Adjusting

Juncheng Zhu1, Xinqiang Wang1, Zhenliang Liu2, Tiantian Liu3, Guoqing Wei4, Xiangyu Chen1
1
School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
2
Department of Psychology, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
3
School of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
4
Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, China

How to cite this paper: Zhu, J.C., Wang, Abstract

X.Q., Liu, Z.L., Liu, T.T., Wei, G.Q. and
Chen, X.Y. (2016) The Relationship be- Objective: To investigate the mediating effect of social adaptation between the Chi-
tween Self-Concept and Mental Health nese college’s mental health and self-concept. Methods: Five hundred and eight col-
among Chinese College Students: The lege students were surveyed with China College Student Adjustment Scale (CCSAS),
Mediating Effect of Social Adjusting. Open
College Student Self-Concept Questionnaire (CSSQ), and Development of Chinese
Journal of Social Sciences, 4, 118-125.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.412011 College Student Mental Health Scale (DCCSMH). Using SPSS and the tools of the
Bootstrap to explore the mediating effect of social adaptation between the Chinese
Received: November 21, 2016 college’s mental health and self-concept. Results: Self-concept, mental health and so-
Accepted: December 26, 2016
cial adaptation were significant correlated with each other (except for that
Published: December 29, 2016
self-concept, anxious, depending and impulse, social adjusting and forcing). The
Copyright © 2016 by authors and mediating effects made up 8% to 20% of the total effects. Conclusion: Self-concept
Scientific Research Publishing Inc. can directly affect mental health of college students, social adaptation acts as a me-
This work is licensed under the Creative diating role between self-concept and mental health among Chinese college students.
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords
Open Access Self-Concept, Mental Health, Social Adaptation, The Mediating Effect, Chinese
College Students

1. Introduction
In recent years, with the increasing enrollment of universities throughout the country,
the number of college students is increasing year by year. At the same time, with the
complexity and diversity of the current society, college students are facing more and
more psychological pressure, such as employment, emotional and interpersonal rela-

DOI: 10.4236/jss.2016.412011 December 29, 2016

 J. C. Zhu et al.

tionship. The mental health of college students has increasingly become an issue and
hotspot which is noticed and researched by society. Currently, College students in all
factors of Symptom Check-List90 (SCL-90) were significantly higher than the norms in
1986 [1] [2]. The number of college students with mental disorder arrived at 20% -
30%, which is much higher than other social groups [3]. Therefore, the aim of the study
was to explore the internal impact factors and the mechanism of action of the psycho-
logical health among college students, and to provide an important theoretical and
practical significance for the prevention and intervention of college students’ psycho-
logical health.
Self-concept is the individual’s cognition and evaluation of the self and social envi-
ronment which are formed during the process of socialization, which is the sum of the
individual’s self-cognition [4] [5]. The formation and development of self-concept is a
dynamic and changing process. College day is the period that self-concept goes through
fastest development and has the most problems. College Students’ understanding and
evaluation of self will not only affect their own behavior, but also affect their mental
health. It is found that there is a significant positive correlation between self-concept
and mental health, which has a strong predictive effect on mental health [6] [7] [8] [9].
Self-concept can prevent the social dysfunction [10], but also can prevent mental health
problems [11]. That is to say, college students with good self-concept can make a more
objective evaluation of themselves, and actively accept the self, thus regulating and
maintaining their own mental health. However, how does self-concept affect the mental
health of college students?
Social adaptation refers to the individual in the interaction with the social environ-
ment, and constantly learns or modifies the behavior and life-style, and ultimately to
maintain a harmonious and balanced state with the social environment [12]. Does so-
cial adaptation play an intermediary role in the relationship between self-concept and
mental health of college students? At present, there is no relevant literature to explore
this issue. It is found that there is a significant positive correlation between self-concept
and social adaptation of college students, that is, the lower the self-concept of college
students is, the lower the level of their social adaptation is [13]. Relative to the individ-
ual with high self-concept, the individual with low self-concept in the fact of social
adaptation showed negative features [14]. In addition, social adaptation is one of the
crucial factors affecting mental health [15]. For example, researches have found that so-
cial adaptation can effectively predict mental health, individuals with poor social adap-
tation; their mental health status will be also relatively poor [13] [16] [17]. Therefore, it
is reasonable to infer that the social adaptation is a mediating variable between self-
concept and mental health of college students.
Overall, self-concept, social adaptation and mental health are closely linked, and so-
cial adaptation may act as a link and bridge. Therefore, this study takes college students
as the research object, and for three main purposes, one is to explore the relationship
among self-concept, social adaptation and mental health; two is to examine the me-
diating role of social adaptation in self-concept and mental health; three is to reveal the

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J. C. Zhu et al.

internal mechanism that self-concept affects mental health.

This study adopts the method of random cluster sampling, taking the class as a unit.
Questionnaire survey was conducted among the undergraduates in a university; sub-
jects filled the questionnaire under unified instructions from staff. Questionnaires were
in total 580, and valid questionnaires were 505. Of the participants, 47.1% were males
(n = 238); 52.9% were females (n = 270). The ages of the subject range from 17 to 24
(Mean = 21.41, SD = 1.35).

2. Materials
2.1. China College Student Adjustment Scale
This study uses the China College Student Adjustment Scales (CCSA), which has been
used as china college student adjustment in the former research [16]. The scale has 7
dimensions that interpersonal adjustment, learning adjustment, campus life adjust-
ment, job selection adjustment, emotion adjustment, self adjustment, and life satisfac-
tion, total 60 items. It is a 5-point rating scale (1-2-3-4-5), respectively, from the “com-
pletely disagree” to “completely agree”. The higher the score, the better the ability of
social adaptation. The coefficient of internal consistency of this scale in the present
study was 0.883.

2.2. College Student Self-Concept Questionnaire

This study uses the College Student Self-Concept Questionnaire (CSSQ), which has
been used as college student self-concept in the former research [18]. The questionnaire
has 23 items, α = 0.716, the retest reliability was 0.785. The questionnaire has good
content validity and constructs validity. It is a 5-point rating scale (1-2-3-4-5), respec-
tively, from the “completely disagree” to “completely agree”. The higher the scores, the
students’ self-concept is more positive, the level of self-development is more higher.
The coefficient of internal consistency of this scale in the present study was 0.883.

2.3. Development of Chinese College Student Mental Health Scale

This study uses the Development of Chinese College Student Mental Health Scale
(DCCSMH), which has been used as college student mental health in the former re-
search [19]. The scale has 12 dimensions and 96 items, measures of somatization, an-
xiety, depression, low self-esteem, withdrawal, attack, paranoia, compulsion, depen-
dence, impulsivity, psychological disorders, psychotic tendencies and other mental
health problems. The reliability of the subscales is between 0.764 - 0.893, which indi-
cates that the scale has good reliability. It is a 5-point rating scale (1-2-3-4-5), respec-
tively, from the “completely disagree” to “completely agree”. The higher the score, the
more the mental health problems were severe. The coefficient of internal consistency of
this scale in the present study was 0.955.

2.4. Procedure
To test the model, data were collected from one university, which adopts the method of

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random cluster sampling. Before the data collection, all participants was signed in-
formed consent.

3. Data Analyses
The data were analyzed statistically by SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 22.0. The methods of sta-
tistical analysis including descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, Bootstrap test.

3.1. Statistical Test for Common Method Biases

According to previous research [20], the study adopts Harman’s single way factor anal-
ysis to test common method biases; the result shows that when the research data is not
rotating, a total of 47 factor, could explain variance of 68.43%. The first factor explains
17.91% variance, under 40% of estimate criteria. It is shown that the study has not ex-
isted serious common method biases.

3.2. The Correlation Analysis of College Students’ Self-Concept, Social

Adaptation and Mental Health
From the correlation analysis as shown in Table 1, except the self-concept and mental
health of three factors (anxiety, dependence and impulse) are no significant correlation.
self-concept, social adaptation and mental health are significant positive correlation
among various factors.

3.3. The Test of Mediating Effect

This research uses Bootstrap test for each mediating effect [21] [22]. First, using repeat
random sampling method (N = 505) extracted from the original data of 1000 samples of
the Bootstrap, then according to the samples of fitting mediating effect model (Figure
1). Mediating effect index of each path and the mediation effect of 95% confidence in-
terval (Table 2). If the path coefficient of the 95% confidence interval does not include
zero, indicates that the mediation effect is significant. From the Table 2, the relationship

Table 1. The result of correlation analysis, mean and standard deviation.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
13 −0.150** −0.168** −0.199** −0.203** −0.203** −0.169** −0.167** −0.079 −0.126** −0.143** −0.198** −0.192** 1
14 −0.143** −0.066 −0.152** −0.173** −0.125** −0.223** −0.175** 0.116** −0.015 −0.087 −0.168** −0.242** 0.130** 1
M 16.585 14.927 14.104 18.502 16.862 12.738 13.335 16.120 17.465 22.008 15.829 11.856 184.805 73.679
SD 6.024 4.904 4.945 6.554 5.596 4.597 4.782 5.627 5.995 6.865 6.021 4.662 26.142 9.781
ps: 1 = somatization, 2 = anxiety, 3 = depression, 4 = Inferiority, 5 = flinch, 6 = attack, 7 = bigotry, 8 = constrain, 9 = dependency, 10 = impulsion, 11 = psychosexual
disorder, 12 = psychotic tendencies, 13 = social adaption, 14 = self-concept; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.

Figure 1. Social adaptation in mediating effect

model between self-concept and mental health.

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J. C. Zhu et al.

Table 2. The bootstrap analysis of mediating effect significance test.

95% confidence interval

Paths C c' a b a×b
Low High

Self-concept—social adaption—somatization −0.143** −0.126** 0.130** −0.134** −0.017** −0.034 −0.004

Self-concept—social adaption—anxiety −0.066 −0.045 0.130** −0.162*** −0.021** −0.040 0.007
Self-concept—social adaption—depression −0.152** −0.128** 0.130** −0.182*** −0.024** −0.044 −0.007
Self-concept—social adaption—inferiority −0.173** −0.149*** 0.130** −0.184*** −0.024** −0.234 −0.068
Self-concept—social adaption—flinch −0.125** −0.100* 0.130** −0.190*** −0.025** −0.046 −0.008
Self-concept—social adaption—attack −0.223** −0.205*** 0.130** −0.142** −0.018** −0.037 −0.005
Self-concept—social adaption—bigotry −0.175** −0.156*** 0.130** −0.147*** −0.019** −0.039 −0.005
Self-concept—social adaption—constrain −0.116** 0.128** 0.130** −0.095* −0.012* −0.030 −0.003
Self-concept—social adaption—dependency −0.015 0.001 0.130** −0.126** −0.016** −0.034 −0.004
Self-concept—social adaption—impulsion −0.087 −0.069 0.130** −0.134** −0.017** −0.037 −0.004
Self-concept—social adaption—psychosexual disorder −0.168** −0.145*** 0.130** −0.179*** −0.023** −0.044 −0.007
Self-concept—social adaption—psychotic tendencies −0.242** −0.221*** 0.130** −0.163*** −0.021** −0.040 −0.006

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.

between self-concept and mental health of three factors (anxiety, dependence and im-
pulse) are “covered” by social adaptation, which belongs to cover effect [20] [23]. Oth-
ers factors, the 95% confidence interval of the path does not contain zero, which social
adaptation is verified in the partial mediation effect of self-concept and mental health.
The proportion of mediation effect respectively that somatization = 12%, depression =
16%, Inferiority = 14%, flinch = 20%, attack = 8%, bigotry = 11%, constrain = 10%, de-
pendency = 16%, psychosexual disorder = 14%, psychotic tendencies = 9%.

4. Discussion
From the correlation analysis, we can see that there is a significant positive correlation
between the factors of self-concept, social adaptation and mental health, in addition to
self-concept and anxiety, dependence and impulse. The result is consistent with the
conclusions of previous studies [4] [7] [9] [24], this shows there is a close relationship
among self-concept, social adaptation and mental health. It can be seen from the test
results of mediating effect that self-concept can not only influence the mental health
directly, but also affect the mental health indirectly through the social adaptation. But
the relationship between self-concept and the three factors (anxiety, dependence, im-
pulse) are “covered” by social adaptation. This is consistent with the results of the cor-
relation analysis, which shows the influence of self-concept on the mental health of
three health factors (anxiety, dependence and impulse) are restricted by social adapta-
tion.
In this study, social adaptation plays a mediating role between self-concept and
mental health of college students. This shows that self-concept can not only affect
mental health directly, but also affect the mental health indirectly through social adap-

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 J. C. Zhu et al.

tation. The time of university is the period of development, change and maturity of
self-concept. Besides, having a good self-concept and a positive self-acceptance will help
students to actively regulate and maintain their own mental health. On the contrary,
the negative self-concept will cause a lot of bad social behavior, such as aggression, in-
fraction, crime and psychological problem (depression and neurosis, etc.). [25] [26].
Self-concept, of course, is not an independent factor that affects mental health. It also
needs to through the interaction between social adaptation and environment, and then
influence the mental health. Self-concept through a good social adaptation can provide
the power and source for mental health, and poor social adaptation will lead to the
hidden trouble about the more psychological problems.

5. Conclusions
In short, self-concept as an internal factor, social adaptation as an external factor, the
two play crucial role in mental health. Among them, self-concept not only has a directly
impact on mental health, but also indirectly impacts on mental health through the so-
cial adaptation, namely, the mediating effect, such as inferiority, aggression and para-
noia, etc. In addition, social adaptation, in turn, suppresses self-concept, namely, the
cover effect, such as anxiety, dependence, and impulse. Therefore, the conclusion of
this study has two implications for the prevention and intervention of college students’
mental health: First, self-concept and social adaptation should be meanwhile consi-
dered, especially in the college students’ mental health prevention and intervention.
Second, enhance and even strengthen the social adaptation of college students, func-
tions of social adaptation as bridge should be fully exerted.
Naturally, there are still limitations in this study that can be improved in future re-
search. First, this study adopts the cross-sectional study design which could not get the
conclusion of causality. Second, this study adopts self-report measurement way, so the
social desirability may influence the result. Third, longitudinal studies or experiments
could be considered in future research.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Science foundation for Young Scholars of Jiangxi
Province (20151BAB215033); the postdoctoral Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province
(2014KY52, 2014RC11); the graduate student innovation project of Jiangxi Province
(YC2016-S136); and the MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities
and Social Sciences (16YJCZH105).

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