Perceived School Performance, Life Satisfaction, and Hopelessness: A 4-Year Longitudinal Study of Adolescents in Hong Kong.

Daniel T L Shek,Xiang Li

doi:10.1007/s11205-015-0904-y

Abstract

This 4-year longitudinal study examined the perceived school performance, life satisfaction, and hopelessness of Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. Over the period of the study, perceived school performance and life satisfaction decreased, whereas adolescent hopelessness increased. Consistent with our predictions, a positive relationship between perceived school performance and life satisfaction, a negative relationship between life satisfaction and hopelessness, and a negative relationship between perceived school performance and hopelessness were found. Structural equation modeling further showed that life satisfaction functioned as a mediator in the relationship between perceived school performance and hopelessness. The findings underscore the role of perceived school performance in adolescent well-being and suggest that promoting life satisfaction is a possible way of reducing adolescent hopelessness.

Highlights

1.1 The Importance of School Performance in Chinese SocietyChinese society’s strong emphasis on school success is well known around the world
We investigated the developmental trends of perceived school performance, life satisfaction, and hopelessness in adolescents using 4-year longitudinal data
We explored the mediating effect of life satisfaction on the relationship between perceived school performance and hopelessness

Summary

Introduction

1.1 The Importance of School Performance in Chinese SocietyChinese society’s strong emphasis on school success is well known around the world. 1.1 The Importance of School Performance in Chinese Society. Driven by this thinking, Chinese students are expected to study hard and achieve academic excellence (Shek and Chan 1999). Chinese students are expected to study hard and achieve academic excellence (Shek and Chan 1999) Such beliefs have created a highly selective and competitive education system in Hong Kong (Kwan 2010), which drives students to study hard and perform well to achieve good school results in the harsh public examination system. In addition to achieving good grades, Chinese children are expected to have good school conduct (Li and Fung 2014)

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Methods

Conclusion