The purpose of this study was to test the mediating effect perceived social support on the relationship between middle school students’ optimism and school adjustment. The mediating effects were tested to 434 middle school students in Incheon, using...
The purpose of this study was to test the mediating effect perceived social support on the relationship between middle school students’ optimism and school adjustment. The mediating effects were tested to 434 middle school students in Incheon, using Questionnaires with regard to Optimism scale, School adjustment scale, and Perceived social support scale.
The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, by analyzing the correlations among variables, there exists a meaningful positive relationship between middle school students’ optimism and each of school adjustment, perceived social support. Second, the result of a multiple regression analysis supports the conclusion that perceived social support partially mediates the effect of middle school students‘ optimism on school adjustment, and perceived teachers’ support has the most explanatory power among the sub-variables(parents, teachers, friends) of perceived social support. Third, middle school students‘ optimism does have an effect not only directly on their school adjustment, but also indirectly on it with their perceived social support. It indicates that if students with higher optimism are more likely to adjust better to school life with perceived social support. Moreover, the extent of perceived social support is important with regard to the effect of optimism on school adjustment.
This research result may suggest a direction of the intervention in school fields and counseling for middle school students’ school adjustment. For the last, based on the represented results, the implications and limitations of this study are discussed.