The protective effect of psychological suzhi on the relationship between school climate and alcohol use among Chinese adolescents

Abstract

Background: There issome research on school climate impact on adolescent alcohol use in the Western social context; however, there is no research on school climate impact on adolescent alcohol use in China. This study aimed to explore the effect of school climate on Chinese adolescents’ alcohol use, and the moderating role of psychological suzhi between them.

Methods: A total of 801 adolescents (45.8% boys, 14.96±1.66 years) completed self-reports on school climate, psychological suzhi, and alcohol use.

Results: Moderation analyses revealed that both school climate and psychological suzhi significantly negatively predicted adolescents’ alcohol use, and the interaction of school climate and psychological suzhi significantly positively predicted adolescents’ alcohol use. Moreover, the effect of school climate on adolescents’ alcohol use was stronger for low psychological suzhi adolescents than high psychological suzhi adolescents.

Conclusions: We can build good school climate by formulating of national level legal and regulations and good social norms, and use mature interventions or cultivation strategies to improve adolescents’ psychological suzhi in order to better play its role in protection.

Keywords:

• school climate
• psychological suzhi
• alcohol use
• adolescents

Acknowledgments

This study has been supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWU1809354). We thank all the participants in this study.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Supplementary materials

Perceived school climate questionnaire: 1 (never) to 4 (always).

1. Students at this school are often teased or picked on.

2. When students fight at school, teachers have no way to take control or do not intervene.

3. Students at this school smoke cigarettes or use alcohol.

4. Bullying or fighting is a problem of this school.

5. Cheating in school tests is a problem of this school.

6. Students at this school damage school property on purpose.

Psychological suzhi questionnaire: 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree).

1. I always have explicit pathways when doing exercises.

2. I always press myself to complete what I should do.

3. I am a popular person.

4. I can arrange and control my entertainment.

5. I am interested in new course content.

6. I keep good relationships with my teachers.

7. I usually do my things on my own.

8. I always do well in group activities.

9. I always set appropriate goals and plans of learning.

10. I can often effectively resolve the embarrassment.

11. When solving a problem, I usually have a sense of what kind of theorems and methods I have used.

12. I can face the frustrations in life bravely and never give up.

13. I can calmly response to the critical condition.

14. I never put off until tomorrow what I can do today.

15. I always build up associations between previous knowledge and the new.

16. In the learning process, I can timely initiative to adjust the way of learning.

17. I always adhere to my plan.

18. I get on well with my classmates.

19. I can solve problems by myself.

20. I can find a variety of resources to solve learning puzzles.

21. I can blend into my current surroundings.

22. I am always strict with myself.

23. I often organize or attend many class activities.

24. I can select appropriate methods based on tasks.