The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate on

Socioemotional and Academic Adjustment: A Comparison of Chinese

and American Adolescents

Yueming JiaSoutheast University

Niobe WayNew York University

Guangming LingEducational Testing Service (ETS)

Hirokazu YoshikawaHarvard University

Xinyin ChenUniversity of Western Ontario

Diane HughesNew York University

Xiaoyan KeNanjing Brain Hospital

Zuhong LuSoutheast University

This study explored students’ perceptions of 3 dimensions of school climate (teacher support, student–studentsupport, and opportunities for autonomy in the classroom) and the associations between these dimensionsand adolescent psychological and academic adjustment in China and the United States. Data were drawnfrom 2 studies involving 706 middle school students (M = 12.26) from Nanjing, China, and 709 middle schoolstudents (M = 12.36) from New York City. Findings revealed that students in China perceived higher levelsof teacher support, student–student support, and opportunities for autonomy in the classroom than studentsin the United States. Furthermore, students’ perceptions of teacher support and student–student support werepositively associated with adolescents’ self-esteem and grade point average but negatively associated withdepressive symptoms for both Chinese and American adolescents.

Over the past 10 years, there has been a growingbody of research on the impact of students’ percep-tions of school climate on their psychological,social, and academic adjustment. Grounded in eco-logical theories of development, scholars haveargued that students’ experiences of their schoolenvironment, particularly those experiences thatmeet the developmental needs of adolescence

(e.g., interpersonal support), affect not only theiracademic adjustment but also their social andemotional well-being (Kuperminc, Leadbeater,Emmons, & Blatt, 1997; Roeser, Eccles, & Sameroff,2000). Empirical studies focused on such questionshave repeatedly confirmed that students’ percep-tions of various dimensions of school climate (e.g.,teacher support) have significant concurrent andprospective associations with multiple psychologi-cal and academic indicators such as anxiety (Rigby,2000), depressive symptoms (Loukas, Suzuki, &Horton, 2006), self-esteem (Reddy, Rhodes, & Mul-hall, 2003; Way, Reddy, & Rhodes, 2007), academicmotivation, and grade point average (GPA; Roeser,Eccles, & Sameroff, 1998).

Despite the focus on the influences of context onpsychological and academic outcomes, these studiesexamine primarily one context—schools in the

This study was funded by the Cultivation Fund of the Key Sci-entific and Technical Innovation Project (704025); the Program ofIntroducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (B08024) of theMinistry of Education, P. R. China; The Office of Global Pro-grams (2005–2006) and the Institute for Human Developmentand Social Change (2006–2007) at New York University; The Spe-cial Opportunity Fund (2009) at the Harvard Graduate School ofEducation and the Harvard University China Fund grant (2008–2009); and The National Science Foundation Grant to NiobeWay, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Diane Hughes, and Catherine Tamis-LeMonda.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed toYueming Jia, Southeast University, No. 2 Sipailou, Nanjing,JS 210096, China. Electronic mail may be sent to yueming.jia@gmail.com.

Child Development, September/October 2009, Volume 80, Number 5, Pages 1514–1530

� 2009, Copyright the Author(s)

Journal Compilation � 2009, Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2009/8005-0015

United States (Roeser et al., 1998). Few studies haveinvestigated school climate and its association withadolescent adjustment in contexts such as Chinaeven though Chinese people represent a signifi-cantly larger proportion of the world’s population(20%) than do people from the United States (4%).Arnett (2008) recently called attention to the fact thatalthough the United States represents only a smallproportion of the world’s population, over 98% ofdevelopmental research is on children from the Uni-ted States. Thus, more research is needed in coun-tries outside of the United States to have a bettergrasp on developmental processes across contexts.Even fewer studies have compared the patterns ofeffects between school climate and adjustmentacross cultures and nations. The few existing studiesthat do compare across contexts have found varia-tions across cultures and contexts in the experiencesof school climate (Kuperminc et al., 1997; Wentzel,1994) and in the links between perceptions of schoolclimate and adolescent adjustment within the Uni-ted States (Crosnoe, Johnson, & Elder, 2004) andacross nations (Samdal, Wold, Klepf, & Kannas,1998, 2000).

The purpose of this current study is to explorethe similarities and differences in students’ percep-tions of school climate and in the links betweenthese perceptions and self-esteem, depressivesymptoms, or GPA across two distinct cultural con-texts—urban China and urban United States. Theanalysis draws from two large-scale studies ofurban middle school students in Nanjing, China,and New York City that aim to understand thesocial, emotional, and cognitive trajectories ofmiddle school students and the ways in which thefamily and school contexts shape these trajectories.

Perceived School Climate and Adolescent Adjustment

Developmental theorists have repeatedly empha-sized that successful development during adoles-cence requires ‘‘trusting and caring relationshipsand autonomous self-expression, choice, and deci-sion making’’ (Roeser et al., 2000, p. 459). Studentswho attend schools in which they are not offeredopportunities for such relationships or autonomywill experience a ‘‘mismatch’’ between their devel-opmental needs and the context in which they areembedded and thus will suffer in terms of psycho-logical and academic adjustment (Connell & Well-born, 1991; Eccles, 1993; Roeser et al., 2000).Drawing from such theories of development,researchers of school climate have focused primarilyon three components of school climate: teacher–

student support (Colarossi & Eccles, 2003; Pianta,Nimetz, & Bennett, 1997; Roeser et al., 1998), stu-dent–student support (Bachman & O’Malley, 1986;Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Loukas et al., 2006), andopportunities for autonomy in the classroom (Con-nell & Ilardi, 1987; Kasen, Johnson, & Cohen, 1990;Way et al., 2007). Such research has focused on ado-lescents’ perceptions of school climate in particularwith the belief that adolescents’ own experiences ofschool climate will be particularly important in theirtrajectories of adjustment (Connell & Wellborn,1991; Eccles, 1993). Drawing from the school climateliterature, student–student support refers to a per-ceived emotional support among students (i.e., car-ing about and trusting each other; Bachman &O’Malley, 1986; Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Loukaset al., 2006), teacher support is typically a combina-tion of emotional and academic support with a focuson social support from teachers (Colarossi & Eccles,2003; Pianta et al., 1997; Reddy et al., 2003; Roeseret al., 1998), and opportunities for autonomy in theclassroom refer to the opportunities for choice anddecision making with regard to learning and class-room life.

Findings from research with American adoles-cents are consistent with theory, showing perceivedschool climate (i.e., quality of relations with teachersand students and opportunities of autonomy) as sig-nificantly associated with self-esteem, depressivesymptoms (e.g., Loukas et al., 2006; Reddy et al.,2003; Roeser et al., 1998; Way et al., 2007), and aca-demic adjustment (e.g., Colarossi & Eccles, 2003;Crosnoe et al., 2004; Demaray & Malecki, 2002). Forexample, a study conducted by Crosnoe et al. (2004)of ethnically diverse adolescents found that a caringand warm teacher–student relationship was posi-tively and significantly associated with a higher GPAacross ethnicities. Colarossi and Eccles’s (2003) studysuggested that emotional support from both teachersand peers was negatively associated with adoles-cents’ depressive symptoms and positively associ-ated with self-esteem. Furthermore, Way et al. (2007)found in their longitudinal study that a decline inadolescents’ perceived opportunities for autonomy,teacher support, and student–student support wassignificantly associated with corresponding increasesin depressive symptoms and decreases in self-esteemover the course of middle school.

Although the school climate literature has consis-tently indicated that various dimensions of schoolclimate are linked to adjustment, few researchershave examined the relative influence of theseschool climate dimensions on adjustment whencomparing it with one of the most commonly found

The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate 1515

correlate of adolescent adjustment, namely, paren-tal emotional support. Researchers have repeatedlyfound that parental emotional support is an impor-tant predictor of both psychological well-being(Shek, 1998; Steinberg, Blatt-Eisengart, & Cauffman,2006) and positive academic outcomes (Chao, 2001;Fuligni, 1997). To understand the contribution ofexperiences of school to students’ adjustment, it isimportant to explore how dimensions such as tea-cher support might influence academic or psycho-logical adjustment in comparison to parentalsupport.

Cultural Differences in the Association Between SchoolClimate and Adjustment

Scholars have also argued that teacher support,student–student support, and opportunities forautonomy in the classroom and the associationamong these dimensions and adjustment mayvary by sex and nationality. Perceptions of teach-ers and students and the norms, values, andexpectations related to the construct of autonomyvary within and across cultures (Noguera, 2003;Wentzel, 1994), and thus the associations betweensuch dimensions of school climate and adjustmentmay also vary by sex and nationality. Girls fromthe United States, for example, often report receiv-ing more teacher and peer support than boys(Hughes, Cavell, & Willson, 2001; Kupermincet al., 1997). Similarly, European American andAsian American students often report receivingmore teacher support than their Black or Latinopeers (Noguera, 2003; Wentzel, 1994). Researchershave also found that the associations between tea-cher support and internalizing problems (e.g.,depression and social withdrawal) are stronger forboys than girls (Kuperminc et al., 1997) and stron-ger for Black adolescents than White adolescents(Ferguson, 2003). In China, teachers are highlyvalued by both students and parents and viewedas role models to students (Biggs, 1996; Bond,1991; Chan & Chan, 2005). Teachers in China alsospend a lot of time with their students, as theschool day in middle schools typically extendsfrom 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. with Saturday clas-ses occurring on a regular basis (e.g., Li, 2007; Yu,2007). Teachers, furthermore, usually have thesame students from Grades 7 to 9 (Chen, Chen,Kaspar, & Noh, 2000). Given such intensive andongoing contact between teachers and students,Chinese students may not only report higher lev-els of teacher support than American students,but also the support they receive may have more

of an impact on academic and psychological well-being than in the United States, where contactbetween teachers and students is less extensive.Therefore, the influence of teacher support relativeto parental support may be more important foracademic and psychological adjustment in Chinathan in the United States.

Student–student support as well as opportunitiesfor autonomy in school and the correlates of suchsupport may also vary by nationality. Research hasfound that student–student support or friendshipsamong Chinese as well as Chinese American ado-lescents often consist of doing homework together(Chen, Chang, & He, 2003; Jia, Way, & Chen, 2008;Stevenson et al., 1990; Way & Chen, 2000), whereassuch activities form a smaller part of friendshipsamong non-Chinese American adolescents. Thispattern, by itself, suggests that the links betweenstudent–student support and academic adjustmentmay be stronger in China than in the United States.However, given the stronger emphasis in the Uni-ted States on nonfamilial friendships during adoles-cence than in China (see Way & Chen, 2000),student–student support may be more importantfor psychological well-being in the United Statesthan in China. Furthermore, the historically stron-ger emphases in the United States on autonomythan in China (see Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2007)may lead to associations between support forautonomy in the classroom and academic and psy-chological adjustment being significantly strongerfor the American than for the Chinese adolescents.As many developmental psychologists have sug-gested (Connell & Wellborn, 1991; Eccles, 1993;Roeser et al., 2000), autonomy is one of the majordevelopmental needs during adolescence in theUnited States and thus meeting this need mayenhance adolescents’ academic and psychologicalwell-being.

Cross-national studies on school climate andadolescent development are rare. Exceptionsinclude two studies conducted by Samdal et al.(1998, 2000) comparing the association betweenteacher support and student support and adoles-cents’ school satisfaction in Finland, Norway,Latvia, and Slovakia. Their findings suggested thatteacher support had a stronger relation with schoolsatisfaction in Latvia and Slovakia than in Finlandand Norway; the association between student–stu-dent support and school satisfaction, however, wasstronger in Norway than in Finland. This studyunderscores the importance of examining theimpact of perceptions of school climate on adoles-cent outcomes across national contexts. Such stud-

1516 Jia et al.

ies further enhance our understanding of the waysin which context makes a difference in child devel-opment.

Current Study

In response to gaps in the research, we soughtto examine the following: (a) How do students’perceptions of school climate (i.e., teacher sup-port, student–student support, and opportunitiesfor autonomy in the classroom) vary by national-ity (China vs. the United States) and sex? (b)What are the relative influences of students’perceptions of school climate (i.e., teacher sup-port, student–student support, opportunities forautonomy in the classroom) and of parentsupport (i.e., mother and father support) on psy-chological (i.e., self-esteem and depressive symp-toms) and academic adjustment (i.e., GPA)? (c)How do nationality (China vs. the United States)and sex moderate the associations between per-ceptions of school climate and psychological andacademic adjustment? Before addressing thesequestions, we conducted a measurement equiva-lence analysis using structural equation modeling(SEM) to determine if the measures we selectedhad similar psychometric properties acrossnational contexts.

Based on previous research, we hypothesizedthat girls would report more positive perceptions ofteacher support and student–student support thanboys and Chinese adolescents would report higherlevels of teacher support than American adoles-cents. We also hypothesized that positive percep-tions of each dimension of school climate would bepositively associated with self-esteem and GPA,and negatively associated with depressive symp-toms. We expected, however, that teacher supportwould have a stronger association with self-esteem,depressive symptoms and GPA for Chinese adoles-cents when compared to American adolescents. Wealso expected that student–student support wouldhave a stronger association with the GPA ofChinese adolescents than of American adolescents.Student–student support, however, was expected tohave a stronger association with self-esteem anddepressive symptoms of American adolescents thanof Chinese adolescents. Finally, we hypothesizedthat teacher support in China and the United Stateswould have a stronger association with GPA thanparental support, whereas parental support inChina and the United States would have a strongerassociation with self-esteem and depressivesymptoms.

Method

Participants

Participants in the China study were 706 stu-dents (50.5% girls and 49.5% boys) in Grade 7(mean age = 12.26) from three public middleschools that were purposively sampled in NanjingChina with the goal of having high-, middle-, andlow-achieving middle schools in the study. Nanjingis a medium size city in China with a population ofapproximately 6 million people. Sixty-seven percentof the mothers and 57.8% of the fathers had an edu-cational level of high school or below. Thirty-threepercent of the mothers and 42.2% of the fathers hadan educational level of college or above. Data werecollected in Nanjing during the fall of 2006. Partici-pants in the U.S. study were 709 (51.8% girl and48.2% boy) students in Grade 7 drawn from fivepublic middle schools that were purposively cho-sen in New York City based on their ethnic compo-sition and variation in aggregate math–languageachievement test score data to represent diverseethnic groups and different levels of academicachievement in the study. New York City is a simi-lar size city as Nanjing with a population ofapproximately 7 million people. Students were 21%African American, 29.9% Latino, 18.5% ChineseAmerican, and 30.6% White. The mean age of chil-dren was 12.36 years (SD = .56). Sixteen percent ofthe mothers and 16.8% of the fathers had an educa-tional level of high school or below high school,8.4% of the mothers and 6.0% of the fathers went toa vocational school or took some college courses,and 49.8% of the mothers and 41.6 of the fathershad an educational level of college or above college.Twenty-six percent of the mothers’ and 36% of thefathers’ educational levels were unknown. Datawere collected in New York City from two cohortsof seventh graders: One was collected in the springof 2005 and one was collected in the spring of 2006.The U.S sample consisted of students surveyedeach year in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Forthis study, we used only the seventh-grade data tomatch the Nanjing sample. The sampling of thisstudy aimed to capture the existing variationamong the local community, reflecting relevantdimensions within each of the two cities.

Procedure

For both studies, we administered a 40-minsurvey to the students during classroom time.In addition, data concerning students’ GPAwere obtained from school records. Measures were

The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate 1517

translated and back-translated to ensure compara-bility with the original English versions. Theadministration of all measures was carried out by agroup of graduate students at the Southeast Uni-versity in Nanjing, China, and the New York Uni-versity in New York City.

Measures

Perceived school climate. The school climate mea-sure used in this study is a revised 25-item versionof two school climate measures (Brand, Felner,Shim, Seitsinger, & Dumas, 2003; Emmons, Haynes,& Comer, 2002). The combined measure assessesthree dimensions of school climate–teacher support(e.g., ‘‘teachers believe I can do well’’) with a focuson emotional support and one item related to aca-demic support, student–student support (e.g., ‘‘stu-dents care about one another’’), and opportunitiesfor autonomy in the classroom (e.g., ‘‘students aregiven the chance to help make decisions’’). Allitems have a 4-point response scale (1 = never,4 = always). The negative keyed items were reverse-coded, and the mean of each subscale was taken,with higher values indicating higher levels of sup-port or opportunities for autonomy in the class-room. Good reliability and validity have beenreported for both measures in the United States(Brand et al., 2003; Kuperminc et al., 1997; Way &Robinson, 2003). For the current study, the measuredemonstrated acceptable reliability for each sub-scale. Teacher support (seven items): a = .81 for theChinese sample and a = .84 for the U.S. sample;peer support (13 items): a = .86 for the Chinesesample and a = .82 for the U.S. sample; opportuni-ties for autonomy in the classroom (five items):a = .69 for the Chinese sample and a = .70 for theU.S. sample.

Parental support. The Network of RelationshipsInventory (NRI; Furman & Buhrmester, 1985) wasused to assess students’ perception of the quality ofsupport from their mothers and fathers separately.The 12 items in this measure assess four positivedimensions of parental emotional support (i.e.,companionship, intimacy, affection, satisfaction).There are 3 items tapping each dimension. Studentswere asked to rate each item on a 5-point scale(1 = never, 5 = always), indicating the frequency ofoccurence between father or mother and child (e.g.,‘‘how much do you play around or have fun withyour mom’’). The four dimensions were combinedto form a mean score representing father or mothersupport, with higher values indicating high levelsof support. Separate means for companionship,

intimacy, affection, and satisfaction were also com-puted so they could be used as indicators of fathersupport or mother support in SEM analyses. TheNRI has been used repeatedly with ethnicallydiverse populations, in Chinese and Americancontexts, and has yielded good reliability (e.g.,Buhrmester, 1990; Chen et al., 2000; Way & Chen,2000). In the current sample, the measure demon-strated good reliability: a = .90 for father supportand a = .90 for mother support in the Chinesesample; a = .89 for father support and a = .88 formother support in the U.S. sample.

Depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms wereindexed with a shortened version of the Children’sDepressive Inventory (Kovacs, 1980). The 10-itemself-report scale measures cognitive, affective, andbehavioral symptoms of depression. Students wereasked to rate each item on a 3-point scale rangingfrom 0 (never) to 2 (always), indicating how oftenshe or he had the certain symptom. The 10 itemswere averaged to yield a single aggregated score.Lower scores indicated lower levels of reporteddepressive symptoms. The Children’s DepressionInventory has been used with both Chinese andAmerican populations and has yielded good reli-ability (Chen & Li, 2000; Dong, Wang, & Ollendick,2002; Kovacs, 1980). Reliability for the currentsample was a = .79 for the Chinese sample anda = .86 for the U.S. sample.

Self-esteem. The 10-item Rosenberg Self-EsteemInventory (Rosenberg, 1979) was used to measurestudents’ self-esteem. Students were asked to rateeach item on a 4-point scale ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), indicatinghow well each of these items described himself orherself. One item was deleted as its item–totalcorrelation was only .18, and the item-deleted reli-ability of the scale was greater with this itemdeleted. The negatively keyed items were reverse-coded, and a mean score was calculated. Higherscores indicated a higher level of self-esteem. TheRosenberg scale has been used with Chinese andAmerican populations and has yielded good reli-ability (Cheung, 1986; Cheung & Tam, 1984; Shek,1992). Reliability for the current sample was a = .82for the Chinese sample and a = .86 for the U.S.sample.

GPA. Information concerning GPA wasobtained from school records in both cohorts.Two subjects—Chinese–English and Mathematicsin a total of four exams’ scores (two midtermsand two finals)—were obtained from the schoolsin China and the United States. These scoreswere all on a 0–100 scale, with 60 indicating a

1518 Jia et al.

pass. An average score over these four scoreswas obtained for each individual. The means ofthis averaged score were 77.03 (SD = 11.20) forthe Chinese sample and 85.06 (SD = 10.63) forthe U.S. sample. The averaged scores were latercoded, with 1 = 0–59, 2 = 60–69, 3 = 70–79,4 = 80–89, 5 = 90–100, and used as the indicatorof a student’s school grades. The GPA scores inthe China sample were based on city ordistrictwide standardized tests, which are com-monly used in midterm and final exams inChina. The scores in the U.S. sample were basedon tests designed and rated by local teachers,which are commonly used in midterm and finalexams in American schools. The data on GPAwere collected mainly to compare how multipledimensions of school climate are associated withadolescents’ psychological and academic out-comes within each group instead of comparingstudents’ GPA across the two national groups.

Analytic Strategy

The goal of this study was to compare percep-tions of school climate by nationality and sex andthe association of perceptions of school climate andparental support with psychological and academicadjustment in Chinese and American adolescents.To address these questions, the following analyseswere conducted. First, measurement invarianceacross samples was examined with each measureusing SEM to evaluate whether the same measures(in English or Chinese) tap the central constructs incomparable ways for adolescents from the twocountries (Knight & Hill, 1998). Second, descriptivestatistics (mean and standard deviations), and anal-yses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted andcompared for the perceived school climate mea-sure, by nationality and sex. Finally, several sets oftwo-group structural models (see Figure 1) andtheir nested models were analyzed and comparedto examine the association of school climate andparental supports with adolescents’ adjustmentacross the two groups.

All analyses were performed with LISREL 8.70(Joreskog & Sorbom, 2004). The SEM models wereevaluated based on four criteria: the chi-square test,the root mean square error of approximation(RMSEA), the comparative fit index (CFI), and thenon-normed fit index (NNFI, also know as theTucker–Lewis index). For the comparison betweenthe hypothetical model and a more constrainedmodel, the chi-square difference was used as thecriterion (Raykov & Marcoulides, 2000). Missing

values were estimated using the expectation-maxi-mization algorithm (MaLachlan & Krishnan, 1997).Approximately 10%–16% of each measure hadmissing values; the values were imputed in the twosamples separately.

Results

Measurement Equivalence

To test the factorial invariance of measuresacross the two countries, a two-group model inwhich the factor loadings of each construct wereconstrained to be the same between the Chineseand the U.S. samples was compared to a fullyestimated model in which all factor loadings wereallowed to vary across samples. A nonsignificantchange of the fit across the constrained andunconstrained models indicated full measurementinvariance. If the initial model of full measure-ment invariance was rejected, further analysiswere conducted to examine whether partial facto-rial invariance of measures for at least half theitems per construct ⁄ factor (Byrne, Shavelson, &Muthen, 1989) across the two countries mightexist, allowing for cross-group comparisons. Thepartial measurement invariance test consisted of atwo-step analysis. First, the factor loading of eachitem or indicator was constrained to be the sameacross groups one by one and was compared tothe unconstrained model by which we wouldidentify the items or indicators that were respon-sible for factor variance. Then, we compared thepartially constrained model (partial metric model)in which the factorial constraints on the identifieditems or indicators were lifted from the fully con-strained model to the unconstrained model. Anonsignificant change of the fit across the partiallyconstrained model and unconstrained model indi-cated partial measurement invariance.

Figure 1. Conceptual path model to adolescent outcomes(models involving depressive symptoms, self-esteem, andacademic achievement will be assessed separately).

The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate 1519

Five sets of two-group confirmatory factor analy-sis (CFA) models were examined to separately testthe factorial invariance for measures of school cli-mate, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, mothersupport, and father support. For the measure ofschool climate, including teacher support, student–student support, and opportunities for autonomy,both unconstrained and fully constrained modelshad an acceptable fit to the data, CFIs = .94,NNFIs = .93, RMSEAs < .08, but the fit of the con-strained model significantly differed from that ofthe unconstrained model. The hypothesis of fullmeasurement invariance for these measures wasrejected. Data were further analyzed and four items(one in teacher support measure; three in student–student support measure) were identified to beresponsible for the factorial variance. Then, the fac-torial constraints on the four items were lifted fromthe fully constrained model. The fit of this partiallyconstrained model (partial metric model) did notsignificantly differ from the unconstrained model,Dv2(18, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709) = 25.81,p > .05, indicating partial measurement invariance.

The same analytic process was used for the facto-rial invariance tests of other measures. The hypothe-sis of full measurement invariance was rejected forall the rest of measures, but partial measurementinvariance was retained. For depressive symptoms,the fit of the partially constrained model, in whichthe loading parameters of all items except four wereconstrained to be the same across the two groups, didnot significantly differ from the unconstrainedmodel, Dv2(5, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709)= 9.02, p > .05, suggesting partial measurementinvariance existed. For the measure of self-esteem,the fit of the partially constrained model, in whichthe loading parameters of all items except one wereconstrained to be the same across the two groups, didnot significantly differ from that of the unconstrainedmodel, Dv2(7, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709) =14.04, p > .05, and thus indicated partial measure-ment invariance.

As for the factorial invariance tests of the mothersupport and father support measures, the four sub-scale scores (i.e., the mean of the items in the sub-scale) were used in the structural analyses. The fitof the partially constrained model for measure ofmother support, in which the loading parametersof all indicators except two were constrained to bethe same across the two countries, did not signifi-cantly differ from the unconstrained model, Dv2(1,NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709) = 0.17, p > .05,and thus indicated partial measurement invariance.The fit of the partially constrained model for father

support, in which the loading parameters of allindicators except two were constrained to be thesame across the two groups, did not signifi-cantly differ from the unconstrained model, Dv2(1,NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709) = 0.77, p > .05,again suggesting partial measurement invariance(Table 1).

Perceived Teacher Support, Student–Student Support,and Opportunities for Autonomy in the Classroom:Variation Across Nationality and Sex

The previous tests indicated the appropriatenessof comparison across our Chinese and Americansamples at the relational level. To compare latentmeans, however, requires partial scalar invariance,that is, that the vector of intercepts for at least twoof the items in each construct is invariant acrossgroups (Steenkamp & Baumgartner, 1998; Vanden-berg & Lance, 2000). Since conducting comparisonof latent mean scores on perceptions of school cli-mate across nationality was one of the major goalsin this study, partial scalar invariance test was fur-ther examined with the measures of school climate.Additional restrictions were added to the partiallyconstrained model (partial metric model) in whichthe intercepts of 11 items (3 for teacher support, 3for opportunities for autonomy, and 5 for student–student support) were constrained to be equalacross the two samples. The partial scalarinvariance model did not significantly differfrom partial metric invariance model, Dv2(6,NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709) = 11.12, p > .05,suggesting partial scalar invariance. This suggestedthat the comparison of means for school climatemeasures would be meaningful.

ANOVA was conducted to examine adolescents’perceptions of teacher support, peer support andopportunities for autonomy in the classroomamong Chinese and American middle schoolstudents. The results (Table 2) revealed that theChinese students reported significantly higher lev-els of teacher support, student–student support,and opportunities for autonomy in the classroomthan the American students. The Americanstudents reported significantly higher mother sup-port and self-esteem and lower levels of depressivesymptoms than the Chinese students; however, themagnitudes of differences in self-esteem anddepressive symptoms were small between the twogroups. There were no significant sex differenceson perceptions of all the three components ofschool climate among the Chinese adolescents,whereas among the U.S. sample girls reported

1520 Jia et al.

Table 1

Summary of Partial Factorial Invariance CFA Models

Measure and variable

China United States

Unstandardized

factor loading SE

Unstandardized

factor loading SE

Teacher support

I can talk to my teachers about my problems 1.00a — 1.00a —

My teachers care about me 1.66 0.10 1.66 0.10

Teachers help students with problems 1.44 0.09 1.44 0.09

Teachers help students with school problems 1.47 0.10 1.47 0.09

Teachers believe I can do well 1.61 0.11 1.20 0.11

Teachers work hard to get me to do well on tests 1.31 0.09 1.31 0.09

My teachers make me feel good about myself 1.56 0.10 1.56 0.10

Opportunities for autonomy

Students get to help decide some of the rules 1.00a — 1.00a —

Students help decide how class time is spent 0.94 0.07 0.94 0.07

Students are given the chance to help make decisions 1.08 0.07 1.08 0.07

Teachers ask students what they want to learn about 0.89 0.07 0.89 0.07

Students have a say in how things work 0.96 0.07 0.96 0.07

Student–student support

Students call each other bad namesb 1.00 — 1.00 —

Students are mean to each otherb 1.11 0.08 1.11 0.08

Students respect one another 1.91 0.16 1.91 0.16

Students help one another 1.65 0.14 1.65 0.14

Someone has beaten me up or hurt meb 0.54 0.08 0.54 0.08

Students like one another 1.96 0.17 1.36 0.14

There are students who pick on other studentsb 1.07 0.11 1.07 0.11

Students are caring people 1.86 0.16 1.86 0.16

Students have trouble getting along with each other b 0.88 0.09 0.88 0.09

I have been afraid that someone

will hurt or bother me in school b

0.54 0.08 0.54 0.08

Students behave well 1.62 0.14 1.62 0.14

Students fight a lot 1.00 0.11 1.46 0.16

Students trust one another 1.95 0.17 1.63 0.15

Depressive symptoms

I am sad once in a whileb 1.00a — 1.00a —

Nothing ever works out for me 1.05 0.06 1.05 0.06

I do most things O.K. 1.00 0.08 0.72 0.05

I hate myselfb 1.19 0.06 1.19 0.06

I feel like crying everyday 0.97 0.08 1.15 0.05

I look O.K.b 0.85 0.06 0.85 0.06

I do not feel alone 1.28 0.09 1.04 0.06

I have plenty of friends 0.67 0.05 0.67 0.05

Nobody really loves me 0.89 0.06 0.89 0.06

Things bother me all the time 1.52 0.10 1.29 0.08

Self-esteem

I am satisfied with myself 1.00a — 1.00a —

At times, I think I am no good at allb 0.95 0.06 0.95 0.06

I feel I have many good qualities 1.29 0.08 0.95 0.05

I am able to do things as well as most other people 0.99 0.05 0.99 0.05

I feel I do not have much to be proud of 1.02 0.06 1.02 0.06

I certainly feel useless at timesb 0.89 0.06 0.89 0.06

I feel that I am as good as others 1.15 0.06 1.15 0.06

I feel that I am a failureb 0.96 0.05 0.96 0.05

I take a positive attitude towards myself 1.03 0.05 1.03 0.05

The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate 1521

significant higher student–student support (F =6.67, p < .05) than boys. Within the Americansample, White students reported higher teacherand student–student support than Chinese Ameri-can and African American students.

Associations Among Student Perceptions of SchoolClimate, Parental Support, and Adjustment

Correlation analysis of all study variables (Table 3)found that teacher support and student–student sup-port were significantly associated with lower depres-sive symptoms and higher levels of self-esteem inboth cohorts. Opportunities for autonomy in theclassroom were significantly and positively associ-ated with self-esteem and negatively associated withdepressive symptoms for the Chinese adolescents

only. Both teacher support and student–studentsupport were positively associated with GPA, butopportunities for autonomy in the classroom werenegatively associated with GPA for the Americanadolescents. For the Chinese adolescents, only stu-dent–student support among the three dimensions ofschool climate was significantly and positively asso-ciated with GPA. Both father and mother supportwere significantly and positively associated withself-esteem and negatively associated with depres-sive symptoms for the Chinese and the Americanadolescents; father support and mother support werealso significantly associated with GPA for the Ameri-can adolescents, but the correlations were small.Only father support had a significant and positiveassociation with GPA for the Chinese adolescentsbut, once again, the correlation was small.

Table 1

(Continued)

Measure and variable

China United States

Unstandardized

factor loading SE

Unstandardized

factor loading SE

Mother support

Companionshipb 1.00a — 1.00a —

Intimacyb 0.93 0.04 0.93 0.04

Satisfaction 1.54 0.09 1.08 0.06

Affection 1.12 0.07 0.67 0.04

Father support

Companionshipb 1.00a — 1.00a —

Intimacyb 0.63 0.04 0.63 0.04

Satisfactionb 1.45 0.09 1.19 0.06

Affection 1.08 0.06 0.70 0.04

Note: CFA = confirmatory factor analysis.aFor each construct, factor loading of one indicator was conventionally fixed to unity for model identification (see Raykov &Marcoulides, 2000). All factor loadings significantly at p < .05. bErrors of this indicator were allowed to correlate with the errors ofother indicators according to modification indexes.

Table 2

Mean Difference Between Chinese (N = 706) and the United States (N = 709) on All Variables

Source

Chinese United States

FM SD M SD

Teacher support 2.98 0.59 2.86 0.62 13.91**

Student–student support 3.03 0.53 2.68 0.43 192.40**

Opportunities for autonomy 2.38 0.65 1.89 0.53 245.61**

Father support 3.52 0.73 3.59 0.72 2.81

Mother support 3.62 0.73 3.87 0.67 44.34**

Depressive symptoms 0.31 0.31 0.28 0.35 4.5*

Self-esteem 3.15 0.54 3.22 0.55 5.44*

*p < .05. **p < .01.

1522 Jia et al.

Pathway to depressive symptoms. The baselinemodel (Figure 1) with paths from all dimensions ofschool climate and parental support to depressivesymptoms was tested with Chinese and Americanadolescents together without any cross-group con-straints, and then equal cross-group path con-straints were introduced to the baseline model.Both the unconstrained and constrained models fitthe data well, CFIs = 0.91, NNFIs = 0.90,RMSEAs = 0.06, and the fit of the equal constrainedmodel did not significantly differ from the baselinemodel Dv2(5, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709)= 0.82, p > .05, indicating that the model fit the dataequally across the two groups. Trimming the non-significant path (opportunity for autonomy todepressive symptoms) in equal constrained modelalso did not worsen the fit, Dv2(1, NNanjing = 706 ⁄NNew York City = 709) = 0.89, p > .05. This analysisshowed that for Chinese and American adolescents,the path model (Figure 2) on depressive symptomswas the same. Student–student support, teachersupport, father support, and mother support weresignificantly and negatively associated with depres-sive symptoms, whereas opportunities for auton-omy in the classroom had no unique effect ondepressive symptoms. A set of two-group analyseswere also conducted with boys and girls. Theresults showed that this model fit the data equallyacross sex.

To compare the relation of student–student sup-port, teacher support, mother support, and fathersupport to depressive symptoms, additional sets ofstructural model analysis were conducted. Equalityrestrictions on the paths from teacher support,father support, and mother support to depressivesymptoms were introduced to the structural modeltested earlier. Adding these restrictions did notsignificantly worsen the fit, Dv2(2) = 2.76, p > .05,indicating teacher support, father support, andmother support did not have significantly differentassociation with depressive symptoms. Then,another equality restriction on the path fromstudent–student support to depressive symptomswas introduced to this model. Adding thispath restriction significantly worsened the fit,Dv2(1) = 27.31, p < .05, suggesting that student–stu-dent support did not have an equal associationwith depressive symptoms relative to the other fac-tors. This analysis indicated that student–studentsupport (b = ).24) was the strongest correlate ofdepressive symptoms.

Pathway to self-esteem. The baseline model(Figure 1) with paths from all dimensions of schoolclimate and parental support to self-esteem wastested with the Chinese and American adolescentsgroups together without any cross-group con-straints, and then equal path constraints wereintroduced to the baseline model. Both the uncon-strained and constrained models fit the datawell, CFIs = 0.93, NNFIs = 0.93, RMSEAs = 0.06,and the fit of the equal constrained model did notsignificantly differ from the baseline model Dv2(5,NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709) = 3.30, p > .05,indicating that the model fit the data equally acrossthe two groups. One nonsignificant path (opportu-nities for autonomy to self-esteem) was thentrimmed. Trimming the nonsignificant path did not

Figure 2. Path model to depressive symptoms among Chinese andAmerican adolescents; standardized coefficients in parentheses;unstandardized coefficients outside parentheses.

Table 3

Correlations Among All Studied Variables for Adolescents in China (N = 706) and in the United States (N = 709)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1. Sex — ).01 ).01 .06 .08* ).03 ).04 .03 ).12**

2. Teacher support ).08* — .48** .56** .27** .28** ).34** .33** .06

3. Student–student support ).11** .37** — .36** .22** .22** ).41** .26** .12**

4. Opportunities for autonomy .04 .32** .06 — .22** .17** ).23** .20** ).07

5. Father support .07 .29** .23** .03 — .47** ).30** .28** .08*

6. Mother support ).12** .37** .24** .09* .48** — ).34** .27** .04

7. Depression symptom ).04 ).25** ).28** ).07 ).28** ).28** — ).61** ).10**

8. Rosenberg self-esteem ).02 .33** .27** .036 .27** .29** ).67** — .18**

9. Grade point average ).13** .11** .19** ).16** .07* .09* ).05 .13** —

Note. Results for the Chinese adolescents are presented above the diagonal and for the American adolescents are below the diagonal.*p < .05 (two-tailed). **p < .01 (two-tailed).

The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate 1523

worsen the fit, Dv2(2, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City =709) = 1.18, p > .05. This analysis showed that forboth the Chinese and the American adolescents, thepath model to self-esteem (Figure 3) was the same.Teacher support, student–student support, mothersupport, and father support each had a positiveassociation with self-esteem whereas opportunitiesfor autonomy had no unique effect. A set of two-group analyses were also conducted with boys andgirls. The results showed that this model fit thedata equally across sex.

Additional sets of path model analysis were con-ducted to compare the effects of student–studentsupport, teacher support, mother support andfather support on self-esteem. Equality restrictionson the paths leaving student–student support,father support, and mother support and ending atself-esteem were introduced to the model testedearlier. Adding these restrictions did not signifi-cantly worsen the fit, Dv2(2) = 1.32, p > .05, indicat-ing that student–student support, father support,and mother support did not have significantly dif-ferent association with self-esteem. Then anotherequality restriction on the path from student–student support to self-esteem was introduced.Adding this path restriction significantly worsenthe fit, Dv2(1) = 31.49, p < .05, suggesting that tea-cher support did not have an equal association withdepression symptoms relative to the other factors.This analysis indicated that teacher support(b = .28) was the strongest correlate of self-esteem.

Pathways to GPA. The baseline model (Figure 1)with paths from all dimensions of school climateand parental support to GPA was tested with Chi-nese and American adolescents together withoutany cross-group constraints, and then equal pathconstraints were introduced to the baseline model.Both the unconstrained and constrained modelfit the data well, CFIs = 0.92, NNFIs = 0.91,RMSEAs = 0.07, and the fit of the equal constrainedmodel did not significantly differ from the baselinemodel Dv2(5, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709)= 6.03, p > .05, indicating that the model fit the dataequally across the two nationality groups. Nonsig-

nificant paths (father support and mother supportto GPA) were trimmed one by one. Trimming thesepaths also did not worsen the fit, Dv2(2, NNanj-

ing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709) = 2.05, p > .05. Thisanalysis showed that for the Chinese and the Ameri-can adolescents, the path model to GPA (Figure 4)was the same. Student–student support and teachersupport had a positive and significant associationwith GPA; opportunities for autonomy in the class-room had a negative association with GPA whereasneither mother support nor father support wereuniquely related to GPA. A set of two-group analyseswere also conducted with boys and girls. The resultsshowed that this model fit the data equally acrosssex.

Additional sets of structural model analyseswere conducted to compare the relation of student–student support and teacher support to GPA. Theresults indicated that the association betweenstudent–student support and GPA did not signifi-cantly differ from that of teacher support and GPA,Dv2(1) = 2.71, p > .05.

Discussion

The goal of our project was to explore students’perceptions of three dimensions of school climateand the associations between these dimensions andself-esteem, depressive symptoms, and GPA acrosstwo distinct cultural contexts. Our findings indicatestriking similarities and differences across Chineseand American urban contexts. First, students’perceptions of teacher support, student–studentsupport, and support for autonomy in the class-room were higher in the Chinese sample than inthe American sample. The higher level of perceivedteacher support among the Chinese students islikely due to the high status of teachers as researchhas suggested that those in higher status are usu-ally perceived more positively by others (Way, San-

Self Esteem

Father Support

Mother Support

Teacher Support

Student-Student Support

.34 (.28)

.11 (.07)

.11 (.15)

.06 (.10)

Figure 3. Path model to self-esteem among Chinese andAmerican adolescents standardized coefficients in parentheses;unstandardized coefficients outside parentheses.

Figure 4. Path model to grade point average among Chinese andAmerican adolescents; standardized coefficients in parentheses;unstandardized coefficients outside parentheses.

1524 Jia et al.

tos, Niwa, & Kim-Gervey, 2008). Therefore, thehigh status of teachers in China might lead Chinesestudents to be less critical of teachers as well as theteachers to be more supportive of their students. Inaddition, Chinese students spend significantlylonger periods of time with their teachers than dothe American students in school and often visittheir teachers at home for additional tutoring dur-ing the weekends and holidays. Furthermore,unlike the U.S. schools, Chinese schools oftenarrange overnight trips for the students and theirteachers during the holidays throughout the schoolyear. The additional time spent with teachers mayenhance Chinese students’ perceptions of the sup-port that their teachers provide.

The Chinese adolescents also perceived morestudent–student support than the American adoles-cents. Given the extensive amount of time Chinesestudents spend with their teachers and with otherstudents, the higher levels of both teacher–studentand student–student support perceived by the Chi-nese students were not surprising, as research hasshown that more time spent with peers and friendsincreases feelings of support (Hartup, 1992). Inaddition, Chinese students have many opportuni-ties to interact with their classmates during theschool day. For example, after each 40-min classduring the day, middle school students have a10-min break to play on the school playground ortalk with their classmates in the classroom. Theyalso have one or two periods during the weekcalled ‘‘free-play class’’ during which studentschoose which activities they want to do with theirclassmates without the teachers’ presence in theclassroom (the classroom monitor, who is anelected student from the class, oversees the class-room). American middle school students are typi-cally expected to move quickly from class to classduring the day and rarely, if ever, get a chance tosocialize with their peers during the day with theexception of lunch periods. American middleschool students, furthermore, rarely have opportu-nities to go on overnight trips with their classmatesduring the school year.

The Chinese students also reported higher levelsof opportunities for autonomy in the classroomthan the American students. Given the extensivecross-cultural work suggesting that the Americancontext emphasizes autonomy more than the Chi-nese context (Bond, 1996; Chao & Tseng, 2002), thisfinding was surprising. However, our qualitativeobservation of classrooms in middle schools inNanjing as well as informal interviews with stu-dents and teachers from other Chinese cities (Fong,

2004) suggest that there are numerous opportuni-ties for students to participate in the decision-mak-ing process in Chinese classrooms. For example, inmiddle schools in Nanjing as well as in middleschools across China, each class has a committee ofstudent leaders elected by the students themselves.This committee is responsible for assisting theteachers with classroom management and activitiesand taking charge of classwide affairs, such as man-aging school tasks and learning groups, organizingvarious sport matches, or contests across classes.They are also responsible for monitoring students’behaviors in the classroom. Furthermore, there areweekly or biweekly class meetings in which stu-dents present and discuss their ideas and opinionsabout school or class regulations or arrangementsand make decision together regarding class activi-ties. American middle school students, especiallythose attending public middle schools, rarely havesuch opportunities in the classroom.

Our data also suggested that the Americanstudents perceived more emotional support fromtheir mothers than the Chinese students. This resultis consistent with previous studies finding that Chi-nese mothers show less warmth in their parentingpractice in comparison to their Western counter-parts (Leung, Lau, & Lam, 1998; Wu et al., 2002). Itmay be, however, that our measure of ‘‘mothersupport’’ was a good assessment of the ways inwhich the American students experience supportfrom their mothers but not the Chinese students.Future studies needs to use qualitative methods toinvestigate how Chinese adolescents experiencesupport from their mothers to determine whetherour finding reflects a limitation of our measure ofsupport or a difference in levels of support frommothers across cultural contexts. The Americanstudents also reported slightly higher self-esteemand lower depressive symptoms than Chinese stu-dents, which parallels other researchers’ findings(Chan, 1995; Weine, Phillips, & Achenbach, 1995).Given that similar findings have been noted innumerous studies of Chinese and Chinese Ameri-can students using different measures and usingqualitative methods (Way et al., 2008), it is likelythat this finding is reflective of a genuine differenceacross cultural contexts rather than a bias in themeasurement of self-esteem or depressive symp-toms. Finally, data from the American sampleshowing that White students reported higher levelof teacher and student–student support thanChinese American and African American studentsalso replicated findings from previous research(Wentzel, 1994) indicating that, as predicted, White

The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate 1525

students feel more supported in schools in theUnited States than students of color.

Regarding the associations between dimensionsof school climate and student psychological adjust-ment, our data indicated that teacher support, stu-dent–student support, and parental support wereeach significantly associated with adolescents’depressive symptoms and self-esteem for girls andboys and for Chinese and American students.These findings confirm developmental theories thatsuggest that emotional support from both teachersand students are critical for the psychological well-being of adolescents (Connell & Wellborn, 1991;Eccles, 1993; Roeser et al., 2000). Although we haveknown about the significance of such associationsfor students in the United States for over a decade(Henry & Slater, 2007; Kasen et al., 1990; Loukaset al., 2006; Pianta & Allen, 2008; Roeser et al., 1998;Way et al., 2007), we have had little empiricalevidence that such patterns exist outside of theAmerican context. The current study is the first tosuggest that such patterns exist in both the U.S.and Chinese context. Examining the processes thatexplain the links among teacher, student, and par-ent support and psychological adjustment acrosscontexts as well as exploring such effects longitudi-nally is an important next step toward enhancingour understanding of the ways in which contextsshape trajectories of adjustment.

Our data also indicate that when compared toparental and peer support, teacher support was astronger predictor of self-esteem for boys and girlsand Chinese and American students. This findingwas surprising given the heavy emphasis on theimportance of peer support among the Americanadolescents, particularly female adolescents. Weexpected that teacher support would have a greaterinfluence on self-esteem among the Chinese andmale students than among the American andfemale students. These findings suggest that themeaning of teacher support, or its correlates, is notnecessarily dependent on the quantity of time spentwith teachers. Although the Chinese studentsspend more time each day with their teachers andreport higher levels of teacher support than theAmerican students, high levels of teacher supportare associated with high levels of self-esteem forboth Chinese and American students. This findingpoints, once again, to the concept of ‘‘universalismwithout uniformity’’ (Shweder & Sullivan, 1993, p.514) or the possibility of strong cultural similaritiesin the ways in which support gets interpreted (orself-esteem gets interpreted) but not cultural simi-larities in the levels of support across contexts.

When compared with parental support and tea-cher support, student–student support was thestrongest correlate of adolescents’ depressive symp-toms for girls and boys and for Chinese andAmerican adolescents. Research has consistentlysuggested that peer rejection is a particular strongcorrelate of depressive symptoms during adoles-cence (Morrow, Hubbard, McAuliffe, Rubin, &Dearing, 2006; Pedersen, Vitaro, Barker, & Borge,2007; Prinstein & Aikins, 2004). The striking aspectof this finding is the lack of nationality or sex dif-ferences in the association between peer supportand depressive symptoms, drawing attention to theimportance of peer support (or the negative influ-ence of peer rejection) in both the American andChinese contexts and for both boys and girls.

When we examined the association between per-ceptions of school climate and parent support andGPA, we found that father support and mothersupport were not significantly associated withGPA. All three dimensions of school climate, onthe other hand, were linked to GPA though notnecessarily in the expected direction. Teacher sup-port was linked to higher GPA for girls and boysand for Chinese and American students. This find-ing was not surprising by itself given the extensiveresearch on teacher support that has consistentlyfound such a pattern among adolescents (Brandet al., 2003; Eccles, 1993; Kasen et al., 1990; Kuper-minc et al., 1997; Way et al., 2007). However, peersupport had the same magnitude of association asteacher support with GPA in both the Chinese andAmerican samples. For Chinese adolescents, thesalience of peer support on GPA is consistent withqualitative data that suggest that Chinese and Chi-nese American students spend a lot of their timewith friends doing homework (Chen et al., 2000,2003). Thus, ‘‘peer support’’ in China may reflectthe extent to which they receive help from theirpeers on their homework which could enhancetheir GPA. Furthermore, those who are high aca-demic achievers may receive a lot of peer supportfor their academic accomplishments. In otherwords, the association between peer support andacademic success for Chinese students may bebidirectional—high achievers receive a lot of peersupport and high levels of peer support fostershigh academic achievement. The processes thatexplain the link between peer support and GPAfor non-Chinese American students in the UnitedStates are less clear. It may be that, similar toChina, high academic achievers in the UnitedStates feel strongly supported by their peers inschool. Longitudinal analysis is necessary to

1526 Jia et al.

determine the direction of effect and the ways inwhich peer support may be associated with aca-demic achievement.

Unexpectedly, opportunities for autonomy in theclassroom were associated with lower GPA amongthe Chinese and the American students. Lowerachieving classrooms in our China and Americansamples have fewer numbers of students in theclassroom and thus may provide more opportuni-ties for autonomy for the students than higherachieving classrooms that are typically larger insize. Our post hoc analysis suggested that the lowerachieving school in China reported numericallyhigher opportunities for autonomy in the classroomthan the higher achieving schools, although the dif-ference between them is not statistically significant.Alternatively, it may be that if opportunities forautonomy reduce instruction time, academicachievement may suffer. Additional observationalresearch is needed to unpack the processes thatexplain this association.

With regard to gender difference, girls reportedsignificantly higher student–student support thanboys in the American sample, which is consistentwith previous studies (Demaray & Malecki, 2002;Kuperminc et al., 1997). However, no gender differ-ence on the three dimensions of school climate wasfound in the Chinese sample. This result corre-sponds to Tsui and Rich’s (2002) findings that girlshave similar school and education experiences asboys in urban China. There were also no gender dif-ferences in the association of perceptions of schoolclimate with psychological and academic outcomesin either the Chinese or the American sample, whichis inconsistent with the results of Kuperminc et al.’s(1997) study that suggested a stronger effect of tea-cher support on depressive symptoms for boys thanfor girls in a sample of American adolescents.Exploring when, how, and with whom differentdimensions of school climate effect psychologicaladjustment is necessary for a better understandingof how the context influences adolescent adjust-ment.

In sum, this study contributed to our under-standing of how adolescents’ perceptions of schoolclimate are associated with academic and psycho-logical well-being and how these associations varyacross cultural contexts. Limitations of the student,however, should be noted. First, this study wasconcurrent leaving the direction of effect unclear.Future longitudinal research is needed to investi-gate the direction of effect as well as the ways inwhich the direction of effect may vary by culturalcontext. Second, we cannot generalize the findings

to the larger American or Chinese population.Both studies were conducted in urban locations. Itmay be that the associations between dimensionsof school climate and adjustment may vary byregion or social class in ways that our study wasnot able to detect. Third, the measures that weused to assess school climate were standardizedon an American population and thus we may havemissed elements of the school climate that areuniquely important for Chinese students. Fourth,survey items on the school climate measureincluded few items related to academic support.Future studies should investigate whether thereare differences in the association between aca-demic support, in particular, and academic adjust-ment across cultural contexts. Finally, GPA foreach country is based on different standards andmeasurements, and thus the meaning of academicachievement may vary by context. Future studiesshould explore such possibilities.

Conclusion

This study examined students’ perceptions ofschool climate and the associations among threedimensions of school climate and psychologicaland academic adjustment across two cultural con-texts—urban United States and urban China. Thecross-cultural comparison in the study wasenhanced by employing measures that were lar-gely factor invariant across the two cultures.Although adolescents’ perceptions of school sup-port varied across cultural contexts, the associa-tions among the three dimensions of schoolclimate and psychological and academic adjust-ment were similar across Chinese and Americanadolescents. Furthermore, school-related factors,particularly student–student support, were morestrongly associated with adjustment than familysupport for the both the Chinese and Americanadolescents. The findings draw attention to theimportance of examining the cultural context instudies of adolescent adjustment as such compari-sons allow us to understand what developmentalprocesses are unique to a particular context andwhat processes are not. Strikingly all of the associ-ations evident in our American study were alsoevident in our Chinese study—two studies that aresituated in distinct contexts but appear, in ourdata, distinct only in the levels of support but notin the ways in which support is linked to levels ofadjustment. The need for American psychology,particularly developmental psychology, to becomeless American (Arnett, 2008) is underscored in our

The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate 1527

study. It is only when developmental studiesinclude non-American children will we more fullycomprehend the ecological context of child devel-opment.

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