Shyness and Learning Adjustment in Senior High School Students: Mediating Roles of Goal Orientation and Academic Help Seeking.

Yingmin Chen,Xiaoyi Wang,Yingli Li,Fengqiang Gao,Liang Li

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01757

Yingmin Chen, Xiaoyi Wang + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01757

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Abstract

Learning maladjustment is a common phenomenon in the context of examination-oriented education system in china, especially among high school students who experience intense pressure when preparing for the national college entrance examination. Previous literature suggests that shyness may negatively affect ones’ cognition, emotion, and behavioral performance and lead to academic and social maladjustment. Therefore, learning adjustment among shy high school students is a critical and practical point of inquiry. With a sample of 677 Chinese senior high school students, this study aims to assess the association between shyness and learning adjustment and related mechanisms of goal orientation (i.e., mastery-approach goals, mastery-avoid goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoid goals) and academic help seeking (i.e., instrumental help seeking from teacher, instrumental help seeking from classmate, executive help seeking, and avoidance of help seeking). Self-report measures were adopted to collect information on: demographic characteristics, the level of shyness, goal orientation, academic help seeking, and learning adjustment. Results indicated that shyness was negatively correlated with learning adjustment, and this association was mediated by the dimensions of goal orientation and dimensions of academic help seeking. Specifically, shyness not only predicted learning adjustment through mastery-approach goals, and instrumental help seeking (teachers) but also predicted learning adjustment through the multiple mediating effects of the dimensions of goal orientation and the dimensions of academic help seeking (i.e., mastery-approach goals and instrumental help seeking from teachers, mastery-approach goals and executive help seeking, mastery-avoid goals and instrumental help seeking from classmates, mastery-avoid goals and executive help seeking, and performance-avoid goals and executive help seeking). Identifying these mediators further enables us to work out effective measures to promote shy high school students’ learning adjustment.

Highlights

Senior high school education is a key stage laying a solid foundation for students’ lifelong development
According to Karabenick and Newman (2006), academic help seeking include instrumental help seeking from teacher, instrumental help seeking from classmate, executive help seeking, and avoidance of help seeking
Highly shy students are prone to adopt passive academic help-seeking behavior rather than active academic help-seeking behavior, thereby resulting in learning maladjustment. These findings suggest that the negative association between shyness and learning adjustment can be partly accounted for by academic help seeking

Summary

Introduction

Senior high school education is a key stage laying a solid foundation for students’ lifelong development. High school students are going to face many adaptative and developmental tasks in this stage, while adaptation and development in learning field is one of the most important development tasks (Deb et al, 2015). The extent to which adolescents succeed in learning adjustment critically influences their academic achievement, peer relationship, and even. In the context of examination-oriented education systems, learning maladjustment is a common phenomenon, especially among Chinese high school students who experience intense pressure when preparing for the national college entrance examination (Kuperminc et al, 2008; Liu and Chen, 2010; Yüksel, 2016). Learning maladjustment may adversely affect Chinese high school students’ aspects of school adaptation as well as their future development (Song, 2015; Longobardi et al, 2016)

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