Can Traditional Chinese Values Transform School Adaptation? Unveiling Cultural Confidence’s Dual Role and Negative Emotions’ Mediation

This study investigates the impact of traditional Chinese cultural values—specifically the Junzi personality and Taoist cultural values—on school adaptation among high school students, exploring the underlying social psychological mechanisms. The research involved 1,284 high school students, utilizing validated scales to measure aspects such as Junzi personality, Taoist cultural values, stress, anxiety, depression, and school adaptation. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. The findings reveal that the Junzi personality positively correlates with school adaptation, whereas Taoist cultural values are negatively associated with it. Furthermore, negative emotions were identified as a mediating factor in the relationship between cultural values and school adaptation. Interestingly, higher levels of cultural confidence were found to reduce the protective effects of both Junzi personality and Taoist values on negative emotions, potentially intensifying the negative impacts on school adaptation. This highlights the complex interplay between cultural confidence, cultural values, and their influence on student adaptation within educational settings.