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

The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate on

Socioemotional and Academic Adjustment: A Comparison of Chinese
and American Adolescents
Yueming Jia Niobe Way
Southeast University New York University

Guangming Ling Hirokazu Yoshikawa

Educational Testing Service (ETS) Harvard University

Xinyin Chen Diane Hughes

University of Western Ontario New York University

Xiaoyan Ke Zuhong Lu
Nanjing Brain Hospital Southeast University

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

Over the past 10 years, there has been a growing
body 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 have
argued that students’ experiences of their school
environment, particularly those experiences that
meet the developmental needs of adolescence
This study was funded by the Cultivation Fund of the Key Sci-
entific and Technical Innovation Project (704025); the Program of
Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (B08024) of the
Ministry of Education, P. R. China; The Office of Global Pro-
grams (2005–2006) and the Institute for Human Development
and Social Change (2006–2007) at New York University; The Spe-
cial Opportunity Fund (2009) at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education and the Harvard University China Fund grant (2008–
2009); and The National Science Foundation Grant to Niobe
Way, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Diane Hughes, and Catherine Tamis-
LeMonda.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Yueming Jia, Southeast University, No. 2 Sipailou, Nanjing,
JS 210096, China. Electronic mail may be sent to yueming.
jia@gmail.com.
(e.g., interpersonal support), affect not only their
academic adjustment but also their social and
emotional well-being (Kuperminc, Leadbeater,
Emmons, & Blatt, 1997; Roeser, Eccles, & Sameroff,
2000). Empirical studies focused on such questions
have repeatedly confirmed that students’ percep-
tions of various dimensions of school climate (e.g.,
teacher support) have significant concurrent and
prospective 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), academic
motivation, and grade point average (GPA; Roeser,
Eccles, & Sameroff, 1998).
Despite the focus on the influences of context on
psychological and academic outcomes, these studies
examine primarily one context—schools in the
 2009, Copyright the Author(s)
Journal Compilation  2009, Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.
All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2009/8005-0015
 The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate
United States (Roeser et al., 1998). Few studies have
investigated school climate and its association with
adolescent adjustment in contexts such as China
even 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 that
although the United States represents only a small
proportion of the world’s population, over 98% of
developmental 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 better
grasp on developmental processes across contexts.
Even fewer studies have compared the patterns of
effects between school climate and adjustment
across cultures and nations. The few existing studies
that do compare across contexts have found varia-
tions across cultures and contexts in the experiences
of school climate (Kuperminc et al., 1997; Wentzel,
1994) and in the links between perceptions of school
climate and adolescent adjustment within the Uni-
ted States (Crosnoe, Johnson, & Elder, 2004) and
across nations (Samdal, Wold, Klepf, & Kannas,
1998, 2000).
The purpose of this current study is to explore
the similarities and differences in students’ percep-
tions of school climate and in the links between
these perceptions and self-esteem, depressive
symptoms, or GPA across two distinct cultural con-
texts—urban China and urban United States. The
analysis draws from two large-scale studies of
urban middle school students in Nanjing, China,
and New York City that aim to understand the
social, emotional, and cognitive trajectories of
middle school students and the ways in which the
family 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 relationships
and autonomous self-expression, choice, and deci-
sion making’’ (Roeser et al., 2000, p. 459). Students
who attend schools in which they are not offered
opportunities for such relationships or autonomy
will experience a ‘‘mismatch’’ between their devel-
opmental needs and the context in which they are
embedded 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 primarily
on three components of school climate: teacher–
1515
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), and
opportunities 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 particular
with the belief that adolescents’ own experiences of
school climate will be particularly important in their
trajectories of adjustment (Connell & Wellborn,
1991; Eccles, 1993). Drawing from the school climate
literature, 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; Loukas
et al., 2006), teacher support is typically a combina-
tion of emotional and academic support with a focus
on social support from teachers (Colarossi & Eccles,
2003; Pianta et al., 1997; Reddy et al., 2003; Roeser
et al., 1998), and opportunities for autonomy in the
classroom refer to the opportunities for choice and
decision making with regard to learning and class-
room life.
Findings from research with American adoles-
cents are consistent with theory, showing perceived
school climate (i.e., quality of relations with teachers
and students and opportunities of autonomy) as sig-
nificantly associated with self-esteem, depressive
symptoms (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). For
example, a study conducted by Crosnoe et al. (2004)
of ethnically diverse adolescents found that a caring
and warm teacher–student relationship was posi-
tively and significantly associated with a higher GPA
across ethnicities. Colarossi and Eccles’s (2003) study
suggested that emotional support from both teachers
and 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 in
adolescents’ perceived opportunities for autonomy,
teacher support, and student–student support was
significantly associated with corresponding increases
in depressive symptoms and decreases in self-esteem
over the course of middle school.
Although the school climate literature has consis-
tently indicated that various dimensions of school
climate are linked to adjustment, few researchers
have examined the relative influence of these
school climate dimensions on adjustment when
comparing it with one of the most commonly found
1516 Jia et al.
correlate of adolescent adjustment, namely, paren-
tal emotional support. Researchers have repeatedly
found 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 of
experiences of school to students’ adjustment, it is
important to explore how dimensions such as tea-
cher support might influence academic or psycho-
logical adjustment in comparison to parental
support.
Cultural Differences in the Association Between School
Climate and Adjustment
Scholars have also argued that teacher support,
student–student support, and opportunities for
autonomy in the classroom and the association
among these dimensions and adjustment may
vary by sex and nationality. Perceptions of teach-
ers and students and the norms, values, and
expectations related to the construct of autonomy
vary within and across cultures (Noguera, 2003;
Wentzel, 1994), and thus the associations between
such dimensions of school climate and adjustment
may also vary by sex and nationality. Girls from
the United States, for example, often report receiv-
ing more teacher and peer support than boys
(Hughes, Cavell, & Willson, 2001; Kuperminc
et al., 1997). Similarly, European American and
Asian American students often report receiving
more teacher support than their Black or Latino
peers (Noguera, 2003; Wentzel, 1994). Researchers
have also found that the associations between tea-
cher support and internalizing problems (e.g.,
depression and social withdrawal) are stronger for
boys than girls (Kuperminc et al., 1997) and stron-
ger for Black adolescents than White adolescents
(Ferguson, 2003). In China, teachers are highly
valued by both students and parents and viewed
as role models to students (Biggs, 1996; Bond,
1991; Chan & Chan, 2005). Teachers in China also
spend a lot of time with their students, as the
school day in middle schools typically extends
from 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 the
same students from Grades 7 to 9 (Chen, Chen,
Kaspar, & Noh, 2000). Given such intensive and
ongoing 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 contact
between teachers and students is less extensive.
Therefore, the influence of teacher support relative
to parental support may be more important for
academic and psychological adjustment in China
than in the United States.
Student–student support as well as opportunities
for autonomy in school and the correlates of such
support may also vary by nationality. Research has
found that student–student support or friendships
among 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), whereas
such activities form a smaller part of friendships
among non-Chinese American adolescents. This
pattern, by itself, suggests that the links between
student–student support and academic adjustment
may 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 important
for psychological well-being in the United States
than in China. Furthermore, the historically stron-
ger emphases in the United States on autonomy
than in China (see Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2007)
may lead to associations between support for
autonomy in the classroom and academic and psy-
chological adjustment being significantly stronger
for 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 major
developmental needs during adolescence in the
United States and thus meeting this need may
enhance adolescents’ academic and psychological
well-being.
Cross-national studies on school climate and
adolescent development are rare. Exceptions
include two studies conducted by Samdal et al.
(1998, 2000) comparing the association between
teacher support and student support and adoles-
cents’ school satisfaction in Finland, Norway,
Latvia, and Slovakia. Their findings suggested that
teacher support had a stronger relation with school
satisfaction in Latvia and Slovakia than in Finland
and Norway; the association between student–stu-
dent support and school satisfaction, however, was
stronger in Norway than in Finland. This study
underscores the importance of examining the
impact of perceptions of school climate on adoles-
cent outcomes across national contexts. Such stud-
 The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate
ies further enhance our understanding of the ways
in which context makes a difference in child devel-
opment.
Current Study
In response to gaps in the research, we sought
to examine the following: (a) How do students’
perceptions of school climate (i.e., teacher sup-
port, student–student support, and opportunities
for 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 for
autonomy in the classroom) and of parent
support (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 and
academic adjustment? Before addressing these
questions, we conducted a measurement equiva-
lence analysis using structural equation modeling
(SEM) to determine if the measures we selected
had similar psychometric properties across
national contexts.
Based on previous research, we hypothesized
that girls would report more positive perceptions of
teacher support and student–student support than
boys and Chinese adolescents would report higher
levels of teacher support than American adoles-
cents. We also hypothesized that positive percep-
tions of each dimension of school climate would be
positively associated with self-esteem and GPA,
and negatively associated with depressive symp-
toms. We expected, however, that teacher support
would have a stronger association with self-esteem,
depressive symptoms and GPA for Chinese adoles-
cents when compared to American adolescents. We
also expected that student–student support would
have a stronger association with the GPA of
Chinese adolescents than of American adolescents.
Student–student support, however, was expected to
have a stronger association with self-esteem and
depressive symptoms of American adolescents than
of Chinese adolescents. Finally, we hypothesized
that teacher support in China and the United States
would have a stronger association with GPA than
parental support, whereas parental support in
China and the United States would have a stronger
association with self-esteem and depressive
symptoms.
1517
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 middle
schools that were purposively sampled in Nanjing
China with the goal of having high-, middle-, and
low-achieving middle schools in the study. Nanjing
is a medium size city in China with a population of
approximately 6 million people. Sixty-seven percent
of the mothers and 57.8% of the fathers had an edu-
cational level of high school or below. Thirty-three
percent of the mothers and 42.2% of the fathers had
an educational level of college or above. Data were
collected in Nanjing during the fall of 2006. Partici-
pants in the U.S. study were 709 (51.8% girl and
48.2% boy) students in Grade 7 drawn from five
public middle schools that were purposively cho-
sen in New York City based on their ethnic compo-
sition and variation in aggregate math–language
achievement test score data to represent diverse
ethnic groups and different levels of academic
achievement in the study. New York City is a simi-
lar size city as Nanjing with a population of
approximately 7 million people. Students were 21%
African American, 29.9% Latino, 18.5% Chinese
American, and 30.6% White. The mean age of chil-
dren was 12.36 years (SD = .56). Sixteen percent of
the 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 to
a vocational school or took some college courses,
and 49.8% of the mothers and 41.6 of the fathers
had an educational level of college or above college.
Twenty-six percent of the mothers’ and 36% of the
fathers’ educational levels were unknown. Data
were collected in New York City from two cohorts
of seventh graders: One was collected in the spring
of 2005 and one was collected in the spring of 2006.
The U.S sample consisted of students surveyed
each year in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. For
this study, we used only the seventh-grade data to
match the Nanjing sample. The sampling of this
study aimed to capture the existing variation
among the local community, reflecting relevant
dimensions within each of the two cities.
Procedure
For both studies, we administered a 40-min
survey to the students during classroom time.
In addition, data concerning students’ GPA
were obtained from school records. Measures were
1518 Jia et al.
translated and back-translated to ensure compara-
bility with the original English versions. The
administration of all measures was carried out by a
group 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 version
of two school climate measures (Brand, Felner,
Shim, Seitsinger, & Dumas, 2003; Emmons, Haynes,
& Comer, 2002). The combined measure assesses
three dimensions of school climate–teacher support
(e.g., ‘‘teachers believe I can do well’’) with a focus
on emotional support and one item related to aca-
demic support, student–student support (e.g., ‘‘stu-
dents care about one another’’), and opportunities
for autonomy in the classroom (e.g., ‘‘students are
given the chance to help make decisions’’). All
items 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 been
reported for both measures in the United States
(Brand et al., 2003; Kuperminc et al., 1997; Way &
Robinson, 2003). For the current study, the measure
demonstrated acceptable reliability for each sub-
scale. Teacher support (seven items): a = .81 for the
Chinese sample and a = .84 for the U.S. sample;
peer support (13 items): a = .86 for the Chinese
sample 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 the
U.S. sample.
Parental support. The Network of Relationships
Inventory (NRI; Furman & Buhrmester, 1985) was
used to assess students’ perception of the quality of
support from their mothers and fathers separately.
The 12 items in this measure assess four positive
dimensions of parental emotional support (i.e.,
companionship, intimacy, affection, satisfaction).
There are 3 items tapping each dimension. Students
were asked to rate each item on a 5-point scale
(1 = never, 5 = always), indicating the frequency of
occurence between father or mother and child (e.g.,
‘‘how much do you play around or have fun with
your mom’’). The four dimensions were combined
to form a mean score representing father or mother
support, with higher values indicating high levels
of support. Separate means for companionship,
intimacy, affection, and satisfaction were also com-
puted so they could be used as indicators of father
support or mother support in SEM analyses. The
NRI has been used repeatedly with ethnically
diverse populations, in Chinese and American
contexts, 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 support
and a = .90 for mother support in the Chinese
sample; a = .89 for father support and a = .88 for
mother support in the U.S. sample.
Depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms were
indexed with a shortened version of the Children’s
Depressive Inventory (Kovacs, 1980). The 10-item
self-report scale measures cognitive, affective, and
behavioral symptoms of depression. Students were
asked to rate each item on a 3-point scale ranging
from 0 (never) to 2 (always), indicating how often
she or he had the certain symptom. The 10 items
were averaged to yield a single aggregated score.
Lower scores indicated lower levels of reported
depressive symptoms. The Children’s Depression
Inventory has been used with both Chinese and
American populations and has yielded good reli-
ability (Chen & Li, 2000; Dong, Wang, & Ollendick,
2002; Kovacs, 1980). Reliability for the current
sample was a = .79 for the Chinese sample and
a = .86 for the U.S. sample.
Self-esteem. The 10-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem
Inventory (Rosenberg, 1979) was used to measure
students’ self-esteem. Students were asked to rate
each item on a 4-point scale ranging from 1
(strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), indicating
how well each of these items described himself or
herself. One item was deleted as its item–total
correlation was only .18, and the item-deleted reli-
ability of the scale was greater with this item
deleted. The negatively keyed items were reverse-
coded, and a mean score was calculated. Higher
scores indicated a higher level of self-esteem. The
Rosenberg scale has been used with Chinese and
American populations and has yielded good reli-
ability (Cheung, 1986; Cheung & Tam, 1984; Shek,
1992). Reliability for the current sample was a = .82
for the Chinese sample and a = .86 for the U.S.
sample.
GPA. Information concerning GPA was
obtained from school records in both cohorts.
Two subjects—Chinese–English and Mathematics
in a total of four exams’ scores (two midterms
and two finals)—were obtained from the schools
in China and the United States. These scores
were all on a 0–100 scale, with 60 indicating a
 The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate
pass. An average score over these four scores
was obtained for each individual. The means of
this averaged score were 77.03 (SD = 11.20) for
the Chinese sample and 85.06 (SD = 10.63) for
the U.S. sample. The averaged scores were later
coded, with 1 = 0–59, 2 = 60–69, 3 = 70–79,
4 = 80–89, 5 = 90–100, and used as the indicator
of a student’s school grades. The GPA scores in
the China sample were based on city or
districtwide standardized tests, which are com-
monly used in midterm and final exams in
China. The scores in the U.S. sample were based
on tests designed and rated by local teachers,
which are commonly used in midterm and final
exams in American schools. The data on GPA
were collected mainly to compare how multiple
dimensions of school climate are associated with
adolescents’ psychological and academic out-
comes within each group instead of comparing
students’ 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 and
the association of perceptions of school climate and
parental support with psychological and academic
adjustment in Chinese and American adolescents.
To address these questions, the following analyses
were conducted. First, measurement invariance
across samples was examined with each measure
using SEM to evaluate whether the same measures
(in English or Chinese) tap the central constructs in
comparable ways for adolescents from the two
countries (Knight & Hill, 1998). Second, descriptive
statistics (mean and standard deviations), and anal-
yses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted and
compared for the perceived school climate mea-
sure, by nationality and sex. Finally, several sets of
two-group structural models (see Figure 1) and
their nested models were analyzed and compared
to examine the association of school climate and
parental supports with adolescents’ adjustment
across the two groups.
All analyses were performed with LISREL 8.70
(Jöreskog & Sörbom, 2004). The SEM models were
evaluated based on four criteria: the chi-square test,
the root mean square error of approximation
(RMSEA), the comparative fit index (CFI), and the
non-normed fit index (NNFI, also know as the
Tucker–Lewis index). For the comparison between
the hypothetical model and a more constrained
model, the chi-square difference was used as the
criterion (Raykov & Marcoulides, 2000). Missing
1519
Figure 1. Conceptual path model to adolescent outcomes
(models involving depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and
academic achievement will be assessed separately).
values were estimated using the expectation-maxi-
mization algorithm (MaLachlan & Krishnan, 1997).
Approximately 10%–16% of each measure had
missing values; the values were imputed in the two
samples separately.
Results
Measurement Equivalence
To test the factorial invariance of measures
across the two countries, a two-group model in
which the factor loadings of each construct were
constrained to be the same between the Chinese
and the U.S. samples was compared to a fully
estimated model in which all factor loadings were
allowed to vary across samples. A nonsignificant
change of the fit across the constrained and
unconstrained models indicated full measurement
invariance. If the initial model of full measure-
ment invariance was rejected, further analysis
were conducted to examine whether partial facto-
rial invariance of measures for at least half the
items per construct ⁄ factor (Byrne, Shavelson, &
Muthén, 1989) across the two countries might
exist, allowing for cross-group comparisons. The
partial measurement invariance test consisted of a
two-step analysis. First, the factor loading of each
item or indicator was constrained to be the same
across groups one by one and was compared to
the unconstrained model by which we would
identify the items or indicators that were respon-
sible for factor variance. Then, we compared the
partially constrained model (partial metric model)
in which the factorial constraints on the identified
items or indicators were lifted from the fully con-
strained model to the unconstrained model. A
nonsignificant change of the fit across the partially
constrained model and unconstrained model indi-
cated partial measurement invariance.
1520 Jia et al.
Five sets of two-group confirmatory factor analy-
sis (CFA) models were examined to separately test
the factorial invariance for measures of school cli-
mate, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, mother
support, and father support. For the measure of
school climate, including teacher support, student–
student support, and opportunities for autonomy,
both unconstrained and fully constrained models
had an acceptable fit to the data, CFIs = .94,
NNFIs = .93, RMSEAs < .08, but the fit of the con-
strained model significantly differed from that of
the unconstrained model. The hypothesis of full
measurement invariance for these measures was
rejected. Data were further analyzed and four items
(one in teacher support measure; three in student–
student support measure) were identified to be
responsible for the factorial variance. Then, the fac-
torial constraints on the four items were lifted from
the fully constrained model. The fit of this partially
constrained model (partial metric model) did not
significantly 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 for
all the rest of measures, but partial measurement
invariance was retained. For depressive symptoms,
the fit of the partially constrained model, in which
the loading parameters of all items except four were
constrained to be the same across the two groups, did
not significantly differ from the unconstrained
model, Dv2(5, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709)
= 9.02, p > .05, suggesting partial measurement
invariance existed. For the measure of self-esteem,
the fit of the partially constrained model, in which
the loading parameters of all items except one were
constrained to be the same across the two groups, did
not significantly differ from that of the unconstrained
model, 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 mother
support 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 fit
of the partially constrained model for measure of
mother support, in which the loading parameters
of all indicators except two were constrained to be
the 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 all
indicators except two were constrained to be the
same 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 appropriateness
of comparison across our Chinese and American
samples at the relational level. To compare latent
means, however, requires partial scalar invariance,
that is, that the vector of intercepts for at least two
of the items in each construct is invariant across
groups (Steenkamp & Baumgartner, 1998; Vanden-
berg & Lance, 2000). Since conducting comparison
of latent mean scores on perceptions of school cli-
mate across nationality was one of the major goals
in this study, partial scalar invariance test was fur-
ther examined with the measures of school climate.
Additional restrictions were added to the partially
constrained model (partial metric model) in which
the intercepts of 11 items (3 for teacher support, 3
for opportunities for autonomy, and 5 for student–
student support) were constrained to be equal
across the two samples. The partial scalar
invariance model did not significantly differ
from partial metric invariance model, Dv2(6,
NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709) = 11.12, p > .05,
suggesting partial scalar invariance. This suggested
that the comparison of means for school climate
measures would be meaningful.
ANOVA was conducted to examine adolescents’
perceptions of teacher support, peer support and
opportunities for autonomy in the classroom
among Chinese and American middle school
students. The results (Table 2) revealed that the
Chinese students reported significantly higher lev-
els of teacher support, student–student support,
and opportunities for autonomy in the classroom
than the American students. The American
students reported significantly higher mother sup-
port and self-esteem and lower levels of depressive
symptoms than the Chinese students; however, the
magnitudes of differences in self-esteem and
depressive symptoms were small between the two
groups. There were no significant sex differences
on perceptions of all the three components of
school climate among the Chinese adolescents,
whereas among the U.S. sample girls reported
 The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate 1521

Table 1
Summary of Partial Factorial Invariance CFA Models

China United States

Unstandardized Unstandardized
Measure and variable factor loading SE 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 0.54 0.08 0.54 0.08
will hurt or bother me in school b
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
1522 Jia et al.

Table 1
(Continued)

China United States

Unstandardized Unstandardized
Measure and variable factor loading SE 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.

a
For 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 of
other indicators according to modification indexes.

significant higher student–student support (F =
6.67, p < .05) than boys. Within the American
sample, White students reported higher teacher
and student–student support than Chinese Ameri-
can and African American students.
Associations Among Student Perceptions of School
Climate, 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 in
both cohorts. Opportunities for autonomy in the
classroom were significantly and positively associ-
ated with self-esteem and negatively associated with
depressive symptoms for the Chinese adolescents
only. Both teacher support and student–student
support were positively associated with GPA, but
opportunities for autonomy in the classroom were
negatively associated with GPA for the American
adolescents. For the Chinese adolescents, only stu-
dent–student support among the three dimensions of
school climate was significantly and positively asso-
ciated with GPA. Both father and mother support
were significantly and positively associated with
self-esteem and negatively associated with depres-
sive symptoms for the Chinese and the American
adolescents; father support and mother support were
also significantly associated with GPA for the Ameri-
can adolescents, but the correlations were small.
Only father support had a significant and positive
association with GPA for the Chinese adolescents
but, once again, the correlation was small.

Table 2
Mean Difference Between Chinese (N = 706) and the United States (N = 709) on All Variables

Chinese United States

Source M SD M SD F

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.

 The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate 1523

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).

Pathway to depressive symptoms. The baseline
model (Figure 1) with paths from all dimensions of
school climate and parental support to depressive
symptoms was tested with Chinese and American
adolescents 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 fit
the data well, CFIs = 0.91, NNFIs = 0.90,
RMSEAs = 0.06, and the fit of the equal constrained
model did not significantly differ from the baseline
model Dv2(5, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709)
= 0.82, p > .05, indicating that the model fit the data
equally across the two groups. Trimming the non-
significant path (opportunity for autonomy to
depressive symptoms) in equal constrained model
also did not worsen the fit, Dv2(1, NNanjing = 706 ⁄
NNew York City = 709) = 0.89, p > .05. This analysis
showed that for Chinese and American adolescents,
the path model (Figure 2) on depressive symptoms
was the same. Student–student support, teacher
support, father support, and mother support were
significantly and negatively associated with depres-
sive symptoms, whereas opportunities for auton-
omy in the classroom had no unique effect on
depressive symptoms. A set of two-group analyses
were also conducted with boys and girls. The
results showed that this model fit the data equally
across sex.
Figure 2. Path model to depressive symptoms among Chinese and
American adolescents; standardized coefficients in parentheses;
unstandardized coefficients outside parentheses.
To compare the relation of student–student sup-
port, teacher support, mother support, and father
support to depressive symptoms, additional sets of
structural model analysis were conducted. Equality
restrictions on the paths from teacher support,
father support, and mother support to depressive
symptoms were introduced to the structural model
tested earlier. Adding these restrictions did not
significantly worsen the fit, Dv2(2) = 2.76, p > .05,
indicating teacher support, father support, and
mother support did not have significantly different
association with depressive symptoms. Then,
another equality restriction on the path from
student–student support to depressive symptoms
was introduced to this model. Adding this
path restriction significantly worsened the fit,
Dv2(1) = 27.31, p < .05, suggesting that student–stu-
dent support did not have an equal association
with depressive symptoms relative to the other fac-
tors. This analysis indicated that student–student
support (b = ).24) was the strongest correlate of
depressive symptoms.
Pathway to self-esteem. The baseline model
(Figure 1) with paths from all dimensions of school
climate and parental support to self-esteem was
tested with the Chinese and American adolescents
groups together without any cross-group con-
straints, and then equal path constraints were
introduced to the baseline model. Both the uncon-
strained and constrained models fit the data
well, CFIs = 0.93, NNFIs = 0.93, RMSEAs = 0.06,
and the fit of the equal constrained model did not
significantly 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 across
the two groups. One nonsignificant path (opportu-
nities for autonomy to self-esteem) was then
trimmed. Trimming the nonsignificant path did not
1524 Jia et al.
worsen the fit, Dv2(2, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City =
709) = 1.18, p > .05. This analysis showed that for
both the Chinese and the American adolescents, the
path model to self-esteem (Figure 3) was the same.
Teacher support, student–student support, mother
support, and father support each had a positive
association with self-esteem whereas opportunities
for autonomy had no unique effect. A set of two-
group analyses were also conducted with boys and
girls. The results showed that this model fit the
data equally across sex.
Additional sets of path model analysis were con-
ducted to compare the effects of student–student
support, teacher support, mother support and
father support on self-esteem. Equality restrictions
on the paths leaving student–student support,
father support, and mother support and ending at
self-esteem were introduced to the model tested
earlier. 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 another
equality restriction on the path from student–
student support to self-esteem was introduced.
Adding this path restriction significantly worsen
the fit, Dv2(1) = 31.49, p < .05, suggesting that tea-
cher support did not have an equal association with
depression 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 climate
and parental support to GPA was tested with Chi-
nese and American adolescents together without
any cross-group constraints, and then equal path
constraints were introduced to the baseline model.
Both the unconstrained and constrained model
fit the data well, CFIs = 0.92, NNFIs = 0.91,
RMSEAs = 0.07, and the fit of the equal constrained
model did not significantly differ from the baseline
model Dv2(5, NNanjing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709)
= 6.03, p > .05, indicating that the model fit the data
equally across the two nationality groups. Nonsig-
Teacher Mother
Support Support
.34 .11
(.28) Self (.15)
Esteem
.06
Student-Student .11 (.10) Father
Support (.07) Support
Figure 3. Path model to self-esteem among Chinese and
American adolescents standardized coefficients in parentheses;
unstandardized coefficients outside parentheses.
nificant paths (father support and mother support
to GPA) were trimmed one by one. Trimming these
paths also did not worsen the fit, Dv2(2, NNanj-
ing = 706 ⁄ NNew York City = 709) = 2.05, p > .05. This
analysis showed that for the Chinese and the Ameri-
can adolescents, the path model to GPA (Figure 4)
was the same. Student–student support and teacher
support had a positive and significant association
with GPA; opportunities for autonomy in the class-
room had a negative association with GPA whereas
neither mother support nor father support were
uniquely related to GPA. A set of two-group analyses
were also conducted with boys and girls. The results
showed that this model fit the data equally across
sex.
Additional sets of structural model analyses
were conducted to compare the relation of student–
student support and teacher support to GPA. The
results indicated that the association between
student–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 climate
and the associations between these dimensions and
self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and GPA across
two distinct cultural contexts. Our findings indicate
striking similarities and differences across Chinese
and American urban contexts. First, students’
perceptions of teacher support, student–student
support, and support for autonomy in the class-
room were higher in the Chinese sample than in
the American sample. The higher level of perceived
teacher support among the Chinese students is
likely due to the high status of teachers as research
has suggested that those in higher status are usu-
ally perceived more positively by others (Way, San-
Figure 4. Path model to grade point average among Chinese and
American adolescents; standardized coefficients in parentheses;
unstandardized coefficients outside parentheses.
 The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate
tos, Niwa, & Kim-Gervey, 2008). Therefore, the
high status of teachers in China might lead Chinese
students to be less critical of teachers as well as the
teachers to be more supportive of their students. In
addition, Chinese students spend significantly
longer periods of time with their teachers than do
the American students in school and often visit
their teachers at home for additional tutoring dur-
ing the weekends and holidays. Furthermore,
unlike the U.S. schools, Chinese schools often
arrange overnight trips for the students and their
teachers during the holidays throughout the school
year. The additional time spent with teachers may
enhance Chinese students’ perceptions of the sup-
port that their teachers provide.
The Chinese adolescents also perceived more
student–student support than the American adoles-
cents. Given the extensive amount of time Chinese
students spend with their teachers and with other
students, the higher levels of both teacher–student
and student–student support perceived by the Chi-
nese students were not surprising, as research has
shown that more time spent with peers and friends
increases feelings of support (Hartup, 1992). In
addition, Chinese students have many opportuni-
ties to interact with their classmates during the
school day. For example, after each 40-min class
during the day, middle school students have a
10-min break to play on the school playground or
talk with their classmates in the classroom. They
also have one or two periods during the week
called ‘‘free-play class’’ during which students
choose which activities they want to do with their
classmates without the teachers’ presence in the
classroom (the classroom monitor, who is an
elected student from the class, oversees the class-
room). American middle school students are typi-
cally expected to move quickly from class to class
during the day and rarely, if ever, get a chance to
socialize with their peers during the day with the
exception of lunch periods. American middle
school students, furthermore, rarely have opportu-
nities to go on overnight trips with their classmates
during the school year.
The Chinese students also reported higher levels
of opportunities for autonomy in the classroom
than the American students. Given the extensive
cross-cultural work suggesting that the American
context emphasizes autonomy more than the Chi-
nese context (Bond, 1996; Chao & Tseng, 2002), this
finding was surprising. However, our qualitative
observation of classrooms in middle schools in
Nanjing as well as informal interviews with stu-
dents and teachers from other Chinese cities (Fong,
1525
2004) suggest that there are numerous opportuni-
ties for students to participate in the decision-mak-
ing process in Chinese classrooms. For example, in
middle schools in Nanjing as well as in middle
schools across China, each class has a committee of
student leaders elected by the students themselves.
This committee is responsible for assisting the
teachers with classroom management and activities
and taking charge of classwide affairs, such as man-
aging school tasks and learning groups, organizing
various sport matches, or contests across classes.
They are also responsible for monitoring students’
behaviors in the classroom. Furthermore, there are
weekly or biweekly class meetings in which stu-
dents present and discuss their ideas and opinions
about school or class regulations or arrangements
and make decision together regarding class activi-
ties. American middle school students, especially
those attending public middle schools, rarely have
such opportunities in the classroom.
Our data also suggested that the American
students perceived more emotional support from
their mothers than the Chinese students. This result
is consistent with previous studies finding that Chi-
nese mothers show less warmth in their parenting
practice in comparison to their Western counter-
parts (Leung, Lau, & Lam, 1998; Wu et al., 2002). It
may be, however, that our measure of ‘‘mother
support’’ was a good assessment of the ways in
which the American students experience support
from their mothers but not the Chinese students.
Future studies needs to use qualitative methods to
investigate how Chinese adolescents experience
support from their mothers to determine whether
our finding reflects a limitation of our measure of
support or a difference in levels of support from
mothers across cultural contexts. The American
students also reported slightly higher self-esteem
and 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 in
numerous studies of Chinese and Chinese Ameri-
can students using different measures and using
qualitative methods (Way et al., 2008), it is likely
that this finding is reflective of a genuine difference
across cultural contexts rather than a bias in the
measurement of self-esteem or depressive symp-
toms. Finally, data from the American sample
showing that White students reported higher level
of teacher and student–student support than
Chinese American and African American students
also replicated findings from previous research
(Wentzel, 1994) indicating that, as predicted, White
1526 Jia et al.
students feel more supported in schools in the
United States than students of color.
Regarding the associations between dimensions
of school climate and student psychological adjust-
ment, our data indicated that teacher support, stu-
dent–student support, and parental support were
each significantly associated with adolescents’
depressive symptoms and self-esteem for girls and
boys and for Chinese and American students.
These findings confirm developmental theories that
suggest that emotional support from both teachers
and students are critical for the psychological well-
being of adolescents (Connell & Wellborn, 1991;
Eccles, 1993; Roeser et al., 2000). Although we have
known about the significance of such associations
for students in the United States for over a decade
(Henry & Slater, 2007; Kasen et al., 1990; Loukas
et al., 2006; Pianta & Allen, 2008; Roeser et al., 1998;
Way et al., 2007), we have had little empirical
evidence that such patterns exist outside of the
American context. The current study is the first to
suggest that such patterns exist in both the U.S.
and Chinese context. Examining the processes that
explain the links among teacher, student, and par-
ent support and psychological adjustment across
contexts as well as exploring such effects longitudi-
nally is an important next step toward enhancing
our understanding of the ways in which contexts
shape trajectories of adjustment.
Our data also indicate that when compared to
parental and peer support, teacher support was a
stronger predictor of self-esteem for boys and girls
and Chinese and American students. This finding
was surprising given the heavy emphasis on the
importance of peer support among the American
adolescents, particularly female adolescents. We
expected that teacher support would have a greater
influence on self-esteem among the Chinese and
male students than among the American and
female students. These findings suggest that the
meaning of teacher support, or its correlates, is not
necessarily dependent on the quantity of time spent
with teachers. Although the Chinese students
spend more time each day with their teachers and
report higher levels of teacher support than the
American students, high levels of teacher support
are associated with high levels of self-esteem for
both Chinese and American students. This finding
points, once again, to the concept of ‘‘universalism
without uniformity’’ (Shweder & Sullivan, 1993, p.
514) or the possibility of strong cultural similarities
in the ways in which support gets interpreted (or
self-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 the
strongest correlate of adolescents’ depressive symp-
toms for girls and boys and for Chinese and
American adolescents. Research has consistently
suggested that peer rejection is a particular strong
correlate of depressive symptoms during adoles-
cence (Morrow, Hubbard, McAuliffe, Rubin, &
Dearing, 2006; Pedersen, Vitaro, Barker, & Borge,
2007; Prinstein & Aikins, 2004). The striking aspect
of this finding is the lack of nationality or sex dif-
ferences in the association between peer support
and depressive symptoms, drawing attention to the
importance of peer support (or the negative influ-
ence of peer rejection) in both the American and
Chinese contexts and for both boys and girls.
When we examined the association between per-
ceptions of school climate and parent support and
GPA, we found that father support and mother
support were not significantly associated with
GPA. All three dimensions of school climate, on
the other hand, were linked to GPA though not
necessarily in the expected direction. Teacher sup-
port was linked to higher GPA for girls and boys
and for Chinese and American students. This find-
ing was not surprising by itself given the extensive
research on teacher support that has consistently
found such a pattern among adolescents (Brand
et al., 2003; Eccles, 1993; Kasen et al., 1990; Kuper-
minc et al., 1997; Way et al., 2007). However, peer
support had the same magnitude of association as
teacher support with GPA in both the Chinese and
American samples. For Chinese adolescents, the
salience of peer support on GPA is consistent with
qualitative data that suggest that Chinese and Chi-
nese American students spend a lot of their time
with friends doing homework (Chen et al., 2000,
2003). Thus, ‘‘peer support’’ in China may reflect
the extent to which they receive help from their
peers on their homework which could enhance
their GPA. Furthermore, those who are high aca-
demic achievers may receive a lot of peer support
for their academic accomplishments. In other
words, the association between peer support and
academic success for Chinese students may be
bidirectional—high achievers receive a lot of peer
support and high levels of peer support fosters
high academic achievement. The processes that
explain the link between peer support and GPA
for non-Chinese American students in the United
States are less clear. It may be that, similar to
China, high academic achievers in the United
States feel strongly supported by their peers in
school. Longitudinal analysis is necessary to
 The Influence of Student Perceptions of School Climate
determine the direction of effect and the ways in
which peer support may be associated with aca-
demic achievement.
Unexpectedly, opportunities for autonomy in the
classroom were associated with lower GPA among
the Chinese and the American students. Lower
achieving classrooms in our China and American
samples have fewer numbers of students in the
classroom and thus may provide more opportuni-
ties for autonomy for the students than higher
achieving classrooms that are typically larger in
size. Our post hoc analysis suggested that the lower
achieving school in China reported numerically
higher opportunities for autonomy in the classroom
than the higher achieving schools, although the dif-
ference between them is not statistically significant.
Alternatively, it may be that if opportunities for
autonomy reduce instruction time, academic
achievement may suffer. Additional observational
research is needed to unpack the processes that
explain this association.
With regard to gender difference, girls reported
significantly higher student–student support than
boys in the American sample, which is consistent
with previous studies (Demaray & Malecki, 2002;
Kuperminc et al., 1997). However, no gender differ-
ence on the three dimensions of school climate was
found in the Chinese sample. This result corre-
sponds to Tsui and Rich’s (2002) findings that girls
have similar school and education experiences as
boys in urban China. There were also no gender dif-
ferences in the association of perceptions of school
climate with psychological and academic outcomes
in either the Chinese or the American sample, which
is 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 than
for girls in a sample of American adolescents.
Exploring when, how, and with whom different
dimensions of school climate effect psychological
adjustment is necessary for a better understanding
of how the context influences adolescent adjust-
ment.
In sum, this study contributed to our under-
standing of how adolescents’ perceptions of school
climate are associated with academic and psycho-
logical well-being and how these associations vary
across cultural contexts. Limitations of the student,
however, should be noted. First, this study was
concurrent leaving the direction of effect unclear.
Future longitudinal research is needed to investi-
gate the direction of effect as well as the ways in
which the direction of effect may vary by cultural
context. Second, we cannot generalize the findings
1527
to the larger American or Chinese population.
Both studies were conducted in urban locations. It
may be that the associations between dimensions
of school climate and adjustment may vary by
region or social class in ways that our study was
not able to detect. Third, the measures that we
used to assess school climate were standardized
on an American population and thus we may have
missed elements of the school climate that are
uniquely important for Chinese students. Fourth,
survey items on the school climate measure
included few items related to academic support.
Future studies should investigate whether there
are differences in the association between aca-
demic support, in particular, and academic adjust-
ment across cultural contexts. Finally, GPA for
each country is based on different standards and
measurements, and thus the meaning of academic
achievement may vary by context. Future studies
should explore such possibilities.
Conclusion
This study examined students’ perceptions of
school climate and the associations among three
dimensions of school climate and psychological
and academic adjustment across two cultural con-
texts—urban United States and urban China. The
cross-cultural comparison in the study was
enhanced 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 school
climate and psychological and academic adjust-
ment were similar across Chinese and American
adolescents. Furthermore, school-related factors,
particularly student–student support, were more
strongly associated with adjustment than family
support for the both the Chinese and American
adolescents. The findings draw attention to the
importance of examining the cultural context in
studies of adolescent adjustment as such compari-
sons allow us to understand what developmental
processes are unique to a particular context and
what processes are not. Strikingly all of the associ-
ations evident in our American study were also
evident in our Chinese study—two studies that are
situated in distinct contexts but appear, in our
data, distinct only in the levels of support but not
in the ways in which support is linked to levels of
adjustment. The need for American psychology,
particularly developmental psychology, to become
less American (Arnett, 2008) is underscored in our
1528 Jia et al.
study. It is only when developmental studies
include non-American children will we more fully
comprehend the ecological context of child devel-
opment.
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