Journal of Adolescence 45 (2015) 138e148

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Journal of Adolescence
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado

School-related social support and subjective well-being in

school among adolescents: The role of self-system factors
Lili Tian a, *, Jie Zhao a, b, E. Scott Huebner c
a
School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, People's Republic of China
b
Wuhan Optical Valley 2nd Junior High School, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China
c
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This 6-week longitudinal study aimed to examine a moderated mediation model that may
Available online xxx explain the link between school-related social support (i.e., teacher support and classmate
support) and optimal subjective well-being in school among adolescents (n ¼ 1316). An-
Keywords: alyses confirmed the hypothesized model that scholastic competence partially mediated
School-related social support the relations between school-related social support and subjective well-being in school,
Scholastic competence
and social acceptance moderated the mediation process in the school-related social sup-
Social acceptance
port–> subjective well-being in school path and in the scholastic competence–> subjective
Subjective well-being in school
Moderated mediation
well-being in school path. The findings suggested that both social contextual factors (e.g.,
Adolescent school-related social support) and self-system factors (e.g., scholastic competence and
social acceptance) are crucial for adolescents' optimal subjective well-being in school.
Limitations and practical applications of the study were discussed.
© 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier
Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction

In recent years, positive psychology researchers have increased their attention to the understanding and promotion of
optimal life experiences of youth within specific domains (Bradshaw, Keung, Rees, & Goswami, 2011; Elmore & Huebner, 2010;
Long, Huebner, Wedell, & Hills, 2012; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). School is one of the most important specific
domains facilitating adolescents' lifelong development and overall subjective well-being (Long & Huebner, 2014; Park, 2004).
Optimal subjective well-being is presumed to be a function of both contextual and self-system variables (Diener, Suh, Lucas, &
Smith, 1999; Huebner, Ash, & Laughlin, 2001; Huebner & McCullough, 2000). Research has suggested that contextual (e.g.,
Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002) and self-system (e.g., Tian & Liu, 2007) variables respectively influence adolescents' perceptions of
their school lives, such as subjective well-being in school. However, less attention has been paid to the iterative and inter-
active roles of social context and self-system factors predicting adolescents' subjective well-being, especially in the school
domain.
The self-system model of motivational development (Connell & Wellborn, 1991) organizes student engagement in school
within a model consisting of four components: context, self, action, and outcomes. Context represents aspects of the envi-
ronment (e.g., school) that produce the positive conditions and positive support from significant others. The self, also called

* Corresponding author. School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, People's Republic of China. Tel.: þ86 135 3376 2514.
E-mail addresses: paipaishu@163.com, lilitianscnu@gmail.com (L. Tian).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.09.003
0140-1971/© 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 L. Tian et al. / Journal of Adolescence 45 (2015) 138e148 139

the self-system, consists of psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Action refers to students'
engagement or disaffection in the schooling process. The outcomes component includes the cumulative results of the effects
of the context and self-system on student engagement in school. This model asserts that self-system variables mediate the
relation between context and engagement-related actions (Skinner, Furrer, Marchand, & Kindermann, 2008; Skinner,
Kindermann, Connell, & Wellborn, 2009; Skinner & Wellborn, 1994). Some authors suggest that subjective well-being is
similar to the emotional dimension of engagement, sharing common features (e.g., Huebner & Gilman, 2006). Additionally,
individual factors such as self perceptions, influence the relation between contextual factors and adolescents' subjective well-
being (Hui & Sun, 2010; Lent et al., 2005; Yarcheski, Mahon, & Yarcheski, 2001). Scholastic learning and social interaction
represent two main activities in adolescents' school lives. Thus, adolescents' self perceptions in academic and social domains
should exert a significant impact on indicators of their mental health, such as subjective well-being in school. Scholastic
competence and social acceptance also reflect the perceived need satisfaction of competence and relatedness respectively,
according to the self-system model. Therefore, the tenets of the self-system model may also be applied to subjective well-
being. Nevertheless, the model does not address why adolescents in the same school, respond differently to the same an-
tecedents, or whether there are interactions within the self-system. Accordingly, this study simultaneously examined the
contribution of social contextual factors (i.e., teacher support, classmate support) and self-system factors (i.e., perceived
scholastic competence and social acceptance) to adolescents' subjective well-being in school based on Connell's self-system
model, as well as the potential interactions between context and self-system and internal interactions within the self-system.
In this manner, we aimed to yield additional insight into the complex determinants of adolescents' positive subjective well-
being in school and to provide practical implications for promotion.

Subjective well-being in school and its relation with school-related social support

Grounded in Diener's (1984) theory and tripartite model of subjective well-being, Tian (2008) has specifically concep-
tualized subjective well-being in school as how students subjectively evaluate and emotionally experience their school lives
and proposed a corresponding model. The benefits of higher levels of subjective well-being in school are summarized in
Suldo, Bateman, and Gelley (2009), including increased academic functioning, better academic achievement, more adaptive
school behaviors, and enhanced mental and physical health outcomes, such as higher general life satisfaction (Gilman,
Huebner, & Laughlin, 2000; Haranin, Huebner, & Suldo, 2007; Suldo, Riley, & Shaffer, 2006; Tian, Zhang, & Huebner, 2014).
Social support is one of the most powerful contextual factors contributing to individuals' general subjective well-being
(Chou, 1999; Diener & Seligman, 2002; Gallagher & Vella-Brodrick, 2008; Kong, Zhao, & You, 2013; Natvig, Albrektsen, &
Qvarnstrøm, 2003). Therefore, adolescents' subjective well-being in school would probably benefit from high levels of social
support from teachers and classmates, who frequently interact with them in the school domain. Teachers are often estab-
lished as “significant others” in students' lives (Brophy, 1981). Empirical research demonstrates that teacher support is
essential to students' school satisfaction (Hamre & Pianta, 2001, 2006; Reddy, Rhodes, & Mulhall, 2003; Rosenfeld, Richman,
& Bowen, 2000). Numerous studies also demonstrate a positive connection between classmate support and students' positive
subjective well-being in school (e.g., Epstein & McPartland, 1976). The connection is particularly noteworthy since adoles-
cents typically increase their reliance on peers or classmates for self-validation and security during the adolescent period
(Lynch & Cicchetti, 1997; Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006).

Scholastic competence and its relation to subjective well-being in school and school-related social support

Scholastic competence refers to adolescents' perceptions of competence within the realm of scholastic performance
(Harter, 1999). Students' perceived scholastic competence relates to their actual academic achievement (Akey, 2006), which in
turn may affect their cognitive evaluations of schooling, such as school satisfaction, and emotional experiences in school, such
as anxiety and depression (Briones & Tabernero, 2012; Muris, Meesters, & Fijen, 2003). The findings are consistent with the
positive relation between self and action proposed by the self-system model.
Additionally, consistent with the theorized positive relation between context and self in the self-system model, prior
research has indicated that students' perceived social support displays significant positive relations with their scholastic
competence (Danielsen, Breivik, & Wold, 2011; Forman, 1988). For instance, teacher's positive appraisals of accomplishments
or improvements are associated with adolescents' higher scholastic competence (Demaray, Malecki, Rueger, Brown, &
Summers, 2009; Masten & Coatsworth, 1998; Pianta, Hamre, & Allen, 2012). Similarly, support from classmates, such as
sharing new information, also appears to influence adolescents' scholastic competence (Gillan, 2009; Samdal, Wold, & Bronis,
1999; Tabbah, Miranda, & Wheaton, 2012).

The mediating role of scholastic competence

Consistent with the positive relations among context, self, and action proposed by the self-system model, empirical studies
reveal that support from teachers and classmates is related to enhanced scholastic competence, which in turn contributes to
more frequent positive emotions in students (Patrick, Ryan, & Kaplan, 2007; Ryan & Patrick, 2001; You & Sharkey, 2009).
Presumably, adolescents' perceptions of scholastic competence may mediate the relation between social support and their
subjective well-being in school.
140 L. Tian et al. / Journal of Adolescence 45 (2015) 138e148

Danielsen, Samdal, Hetland, and Wold (2009) demonstrated that school-related social support from teachers and class-
mates relates to students' life satisfaction, indirectly through students' perceptions of scholastic competence, which are
related to school satisfaction. Moreover, adolescents' relationships with teachers and academic self-perceptions are linked to
adolescents' global life satisfaction, largely through associations with school satisfaction (Suldo, Shaffer, & Riley, 2008).
However, the mediating role of scholastic competence in linking social support experiences to adolescents' subjective well-
being has seldom been examined specifically within the school domain. Thus, we examined whether adolescents' perceived
scholastic competence mediates the relation between school-related social support and adolescents' optimal subjective well-
being in school.

The moderating role of social acceptance

Social acceptance refers to a student's perception of being loved or cared for by others (Harter, 1988). Students with high
levels of social acceptance usually hold more positive perceptions of peers and teachers, reporting higher school satisfaction
(Harter & Whitesell, 1996; Ladd, 1990; Smith & Hart, 2011; Wentzel, 1994). The theoretical framework of subjective well-
being is also a promising way to examine the interaction between the individual and context (Baker, 1998), although few
studies have actually tested for moderation effects. The individual self becomes more socially oriented during adolescence
(Harter, 1990; Tanti, Stukas, Halloran, & Foddy, 2008), therefore, adolescents' perceptions of social acceptance may be a crucial
self-system factor to consider in fully understanding their subjective well-being in school. Additionally, individuals' per-
ceptions of acceptance influence their expectations about social support and subsequent outcomes (Bowlby, 1980; Sarason
et al., 1991; Sarason, Pierce, & Sarason, 1990). Moreover, the sense of social acceptance tends to be relatively enduring
across the adolescent period and may operate as a relatively stable personality trait that could conceptually be regarded as a
moderator (Baron & Kenny, 1986; Granleese & Joseph, 1994; Sarason, Sarason, & Shearin, 1986). For instance, high levels of
social acceptance could protect individuals against maladjustment in the face of aversive social experiences (Henricsson &
Rydell, 2004; McQuade et al., 2014). Thus, high levels of social acceptance could be speculated to enhance the contribu-
tion of school-related social support to adolescents' subjective well-being in school.
In this study, we also consider one possible interaction within self-system processes in predicting individual differences in
adolescents' subjective well-being in school. As Connell and Wellborn (1991) have theorized, there may be interactive in-
terrelations within self-system processes. For instance, relatedness-related beliefs may interact with competence-related
beliefs in their effects on outcomes. Similarly, prior literature has indicated that individuals whose perception of self is
negative in some domains can still display adequate global self perception and feel satisfied if they perceive themselves as
competent in other domains (Bear, Minke, & Manning, 2002; Gans, Kenny, & Ghany, 2003; Harter, 1986; Kloomok & Cosden,
1994). Although a paucity of research has addressed possible interactive effects of the self-system, adolescents' perceptions of
social acceptance could be speculated to moderate the effects of scholastic competence on subjective well-being in school.
Therefore, we investigated whether the direct path from school-related social support to subjective well-being in school,
or the indirect pathways through scholastic competence would vary as a function of social acceptance. We expected that the
direct effect of school-related social support on subjective well-being in school would be stronger for adolescents who have
higher levels of social acceptance, but the indirect effect through scholastic competence would be stronger for students with
lower levels of social acceptance.

Purpose of the current study

The primary goal was to investigate the interrelations among contextual factors (i.e., teacher support and classmate
support), self-system factors (i.e., students' perceptions of scholastic competence and social acceptance) and adolescents'
positive subjective well-being in school. Moreover, following the self-system model proposed by Connell and Wellborn
(1991), we attempted to develop and test a predictive model of adolescents' positive subjective well-being in school. Spe-
cifically, three hypotheses were formulated: (1) adolescents' perceived school-related social support (i.e., teacher support and
classmate support) will significantly predict their positive subjective well-being in school, (2) adolescents' perception of
scholastic competence will mediate the relation between school-related social support and their positive subjective well-
being in school, (3) the above mediation model will be moderated by the adolescents' perceptions of social acceptance
both in the school-related social support–> subjective well-being in school path and in the scholastic competence–> sub-
jective well-being in school path. Therefore, we used a short-term prospective design as suggested by some researchers (e.g.,
Maxwell & Cole, 2007) and assessed adolescents' perceived school-related social support and social acceptance at Time 1 (T1),
with scholastic competence and positive subjective well-being in school assessed both at Time 1 and Time 2 (T2).

Method

Participants

A total of 1476 adolescents were randomly drawn from eight public secondary schools (four junior high schools and four
senior high schools) in a Southern China province. They completed the baseline questionnaires and 1370 (92.80% of the
original sample) of them subsequently completed questionnaires six weeks later. Among the 1370 adolescents, 1316
 L. Tian et al. / Journal of Adolescence 45 (2015) 138e148 141

adolescents (96.10% participation) completed data for all of the variables examined at both time points. Adolescents who
participated at Time 1 (T1) but were not present at Time 2 (T2) did not differ significantly on any of the measures from those
who remained at all time points. The resulting valid participants were 636 (50.50% girls) junior high school students and 680
(55.10% girls) senior high school students. The average cluster size according to school was 164.5. The mean age of the
participants was 15.33 years (SD ¼ 1.79) with a range of 11e19 years.
Although this was a convenience sample, the participating schools were all coeducational schools, were all representative
of those schools in the region, and were all comparable in terms of school size, class size, and teachers' teaching ability. Almost
all participating students came from middle-income families. This study included students from grades 7e11, excluding
students in grades 9 and 12, whose evaluations of their school lives and themselves may be uniquely influenced by the intense
preparation time associated with the high stakes academic examinations that occur during these grades in Chinese schools.

Measures

School-related social support

Items measuring perceived teacher support and classmate support were from two subscales of the Child and Adolescent
Social Support Scale (CASSS; Malecki, Demaray, Elliott, & Nolten, 2000). The CASSS is designed to measure social support
perceived by children and adolescents in grades 3e12. There are 12 items on each subscale and students responded to items
by providing a frequency rating ranging from 1 (Never) to 6 (Always). Subscale scores were calculated by averaging items
separately (e.g., “my teachers help me solve problems by giving me information” and “my classmates make suggestions when
I don't know what to do”), with higher scores indicating higher perceived support. The Teacher and Classmate subscales have
shown good evidence of reliability and validity with Chinese adolescents (Chen & Wei, 2013; Yang, Lin, & Qian, 2010). In this
study, the Cronbach alphas for the measure of teacher support were 0.94 at T1 and 0.95 at T2. The alphas for the measure of
classmate support were 0.95 at T1 and 0.96 at T2.

Subjective well-being in school

Subjective well-being in school was measured using the Adolescent's Subjective Well-Being in School Scale (ASWBSS;
Tian, 2008). The ASWBSS is designed to measure subjective well-being in school as perceived by adolescents in grades
7e12. It is a 50-item self-report scale comprised of three subscales: School Satisfaction, Positive Affect in School, and
Negative Affect in School. The School Satisfaction subscale consists of 36 items (e.g., “The school has high teaching
quality”). Responses ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). The Positive Affect in School and the Negative
Affect in School subscales consist of seven adjectives describing positive or negative emotions experienced specifically
during school time (e.g., exciting, happy, and relaxed; depressed, upset, and bored, respectively). Responses ranged from 1
(never) to 6 (always). A composite subjective well-being in school score was computed by first calculating the mean score
for each subscale, then subtracting the participant's Negative Affect in School score from the Positive Affect in School score
and then adding the School Satisfaction score. This procedure has been recommended and used in many past studies (e.g.,
Eryilmaz, 2012; Garcia & Moradi, 2012). The total scale has previously shown evidence of good construct validity (Tian,
2008). In this study, the alphas for the subscales of School Satisfaction, Positive Affect in School, and Negative Affect in
School were 0.95, 0.87, and 0.82 respectively at T1, and 0.96, 0.90, 0.85 at T2. The alphas for the total scale were 0.93 at T1
and 0.94 at T2.

Scholastic competence and social acceptance

Items measuring adolescents' perceptions of scholastic competence and social acceptance were from two subscales of
Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents (SPPA: Harter, 1988). The SPPA is a self-report questionnaire assessing ado-
lescents' perceived self-competence in eight domains including scholastic competence, social acceptance, etc. Each subscale
contains five items, and each item (e.g., “Some teenagers perform very well on schoolwork” BUT “Some teenagers do not
perform well on schoolwork” in the Scholastic Competence subscale; “Some teenagers are very hard to like” BUT “Some
teenagers are really easy to like” in the Social Acceptance subscale) is scored on a 4-point scale. Participants selected which
description was “most like” him or herself, secondarily rating whether the description was “really true” or “sort of true.”
Higher scores indicate higher perceived competence. This scale has been used with adolescents of ages 11e20 in prior
research (Thomson & Zand, 2002; Wichstraum, 1995). The Chinese version (Chan, 1997) was used in this study. The two
subscales show evidence of good reliability and validity with Chinese adolescents (Tian & Liu, 2007). In the current study, the
alpha for the Social Acceptance subscale was 0.83 at T1. The alphas for the Scholastic Competence subscale were 0.83 at T1
and 0.84 at T2.

Procedure

Consistent with institutional review board procedures in China, parental consent and student assent were obtained before
participation. All students participated voluntarily in this study and had the right to drop out at any time during the
administration of the survey measures. Identical packets of self-report measures were administered to the participants by
several trained graduate assistants at two time points, which occurred six weeks apart. The participants all received identical
verbal and written instructions and were allowed to take as much time as needed to complete the measures. In addition,
142 L. Tian et al. / Journal of Adolescence 45 (2015) 138e148

students were asked to provide information about their age, grade, and gender. All testing materials and procedures were
approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of South China Normal University.

Data analyses

Data analyses were performed using SPSS 21.0. The participants whose questionnaires contained missing values were
excluded from the final database (i.e., listwise deletion). Hypotheses were tested by regression analyses based on 5000
bootstrapped samples using bias corrected and accelerated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) with centered variables (Aiken &
West, 1991), performed via the PROCESS procedure developed by Hayes (Submitted for publication, 2013). We assessed the
mediation hypotheses using a standard path-analytic approach (MacKinnon, 2008; Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Then, we used
the approach described in Preacher, Rucker, and Hayes (2007), which is similar to Muller, Judd, and Yzerbyt's (2005)
guidelines, to test the moderated mediation hypotheses using moderated ordinary least-squares regression analysis. All
regression analyses were run twice based on the two aspects of the school-related social support variable (i.e., teacher
support and classmate support). The indirect path was considered significant when the 95% CI did not include zero. To further
understand the nature of these moderation effects, conditional direct and indirect effects (“simple slopes”) were estimated
using the “pick-a-point” approach (Hayes & Matthes, 2009; Preacher, Curran, & Bauer, 2006), with the sample mean and plus
and minus 1 SD from the mean representing “moderate”, “high”, and “low” social acceptance at T1. Since adolescents are
nested under school, we used dummy variables according to school with the cluster option to partial out effects due to school
from estimates of the coefficients and standard errors in the model. We included adolescents' gender, grade level, scholastic
competence at T1, and subjective well-being in school at T1 as covariates in all analyses.

Results

Preliminary analyses

The skewness and kurtosis for all variables was less than 1.0, indicating there was no non-normality in the data.
Descriptive statistics and correlations among study variables are displayed in Table 1.

Mediation analyses

As anticipated, both teacher support at T1 and classmate support at T1 demonstrated significant, direct paths to scholastic
competence at T2 (b ¼ 0.07, SE ¼ 0.02, p < 0.001; both for teacher support and classmate support domains) and subjective
well-being in school at T2 (b ¼ 0.37, SE ¼ 0.04, p < 0.001; b ¼ 0.36, SE ¼ 0.04, p < 0.001, respectively). Subjective well-being in
school at T2 was predicted significantly by scholastic competence at T2 (b ¼ 0.27, SE ¼ 0.06, p < 0.001; both for teacher
support and classmate support domains). When scholastic competence at T2 was included, both teacher support at T1 and
classmate support at T1 had reduced relations with subjective well-being in school at T2 (b ¼ 0.35, SE ¼ 0.04, p < 0.001;
b ¼ 0.34, SE ¼ 0.04, p < 0.001, respectively). The reductions in this relation were significant [SE ¼ 0.01, 95% CI ¼ (0.01, 0.04),
Z ¼ 2.74, p < 0.01; SE ¼ 0.01, 95% CI ¼ (0.01, 0.04), Z ¼ 2.84, p < 0.01, respectively], and the indirect effects both were 0.02,
accounting for 5.41% and 5.56% of the total effects, respectively. When the effect of the antecedent variable on the criterion
variable decreases by a nontrivial amount (but not to zero) with the inclusion of the mediator, partial mediation is said to have
occurred (Judd & Kenny, 1981; Preacher & Hayes, 2004). Therefore, scholastic competence at T2 partially mediated the
relation between school-related social support at T1 (both teacher support and classmate support) and subjective well-being
in school at T2.

Table 1
Descriptive statistics and correlations for main variables (N ¼ 1316).

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1.Gender 1
2.Grade level 0.05 1
3.TS T1 0.01 0.15*** 1
4.CS T1 0.07* 0.02 0.56*** 1
5.SA T1 0.01 0.14*** 0.27*** 0.46*** 1
6.SC T1 0.11*** 0.14*** 0.23*** 0.28*** 0.46*** 1
7.SC T2 0.06* 0.06* 0.23*** 0.23*** 0.20*** 0.33*** 1
8.SWBS T1 0.01 0.16*** 0.61*** 0.53*** 0.45*** 0.39*** 0.25*** 1
9.SWBS T2 0.03 0.04 0.56*** 0.52*** 0.37*** 0.35*** 0.29*** 0.70*** 1
M 0.53 0.52 4.13 4.00 2.95 2.53 2.60 4.93 4.95
SD 0.50 0.50 0.96 0.93 0.54 0.58 0.57 1.88 1.70

Notes. Gender was dummy coded such that 0 ¼ male and 1 ¼ female; Grade level was dummy coded such that 0 ¼ junior high school and 1 ¼ senior high
school. SWBS ¼ subjective well-being in school; SC ¼ scholastic competence; TS ¼ perceived teacher support; CS ¼ perceived classmates support; SA ¼ social
acceptance; T1 ¼ Time 1; T2 ¼ Time 2.
*p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001.
 L. Tian et al. / Journal of Adolescence 45 (2015) 138e148 143

Moderated mediation analyses

The resulting models are portrayed in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. The numbers represent the path coefficients for the teacher support
and classmate support data, respectively, for the hypothesized version of the model; the significant paths are indicated with
asterisks. The significant mediation and interaction effects suggested that the direct effect of school-related social support at
T1 (both teacher and classmate domains) on subjective well-being in school at T2 was significantly larger for those ado-
lescents who had higher social acceptance at T1, but the indirect effect from scholastic competence at T2 to subjective well-
being in school at T2 was significantly larger for those who had lower social acceptance at T1.
The results of the “pick-a-point” approach indicated that teacher support at T1 was significantly (p < 0.001) and positively
related to subjective well-being in school at T2 at all three points (conditional direct effects were 0.18, 0.35, and 0.52 at low,
moderate, and high values of social acceptance at T1, respectively). Classmate support at T1 was also significantly (p < 0.001)
and positively related to subjective well-being in school at T2 at all three points (conditional direct effects were 0.23, 0.35, and
0.47, respectively). According to the recommendation in Preacher et al. (2007), the point estimates and 95% CIs for the
conditional indirect effect are presented in Table 2. When social acceptance at T1 was low, the indirect effects were significant
for both teacher support at T1 and classmate support at T1 (0.03, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.05; 0.03, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.06, respectively),
the indirect effects at the moderate value of social acceptance at T1 were also significant (0.02, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.03, both for
teacher and classmate domains), but the indirect effects at the high value of social acceptance at T1 were not (0.01, 95% CI:0.00
to 0.02, both for teacher and classmate domains). For descriptive purposes, we plotted the predicted subjective well-being in
school at T2 against scholastic competence at T2, separately for low and high levels of social acceptance at T1 (1 SD below the
mean and above the mean, respectively) (See Fig. 3). In sum, both the direct and indirect paths in the above mediation process
were moderated by social acceptance at T1.

Discussion

The robust effect of school-related social support on adolescents' positive subjective well-being in school has garnered
considerable empirical support (Tian, Liu, Huang, & Huebner, 2013; Tian, Tian, & Huebner, 2014). However, the underlying
psychological mechanisms that account for the associations between these variables remain understudied. The present study
formulated and tested a moderated mediation model to unpack some potential nuances of the relations. The findings overall
supported the importance of incorporating both context and self-system factors to explain adolescents' positive subjective
well-being in school. Specifically, our findings suggest that the contribution of school-related social support to adolescents'

Fig. 1. The moderated mediation model predicting SWB in school at T2 from teacher support at T1. Notes. SWBS ¼ subjective well-being in school; SC ¼ scholastic
competence; TS ¼ perceived teacher support; SA ¼ social acceptance; T1 ¼ Time 1; T2 ¼ Time 2. Excluding scholastic competence at T1 and SWB in school at T1,
other covariates are not shown.

Fig. 2. The moderated mediation model predicting SWB in school at T2 from classmate support at T1. Notes. SWBS ¼ subjective well-being in school;
SC ¼ scholastic competence; CS ¼ perceived classmates support; SA ¼ social acceptance; T1 ¼ Time 1; T2 ¼ Time 2. Excluding scholastic competence at T1 and
SWB in school at T1, other covariates are not shown.
144 L. Tian et al. / Journal of Adolescence 45 (2015) 138e148

Table 2
Conditional indirect effects of school-related social support on subjective well-being in school at 6 weeks through scholastic competence at social acceptance
±1 SD (N ¼ 1316).

Social acceptance T1 Perceived teacher support T1 Perceived classmates support T1

Effect SE 95% CI Effect SE 95% CI

Low 0.03 0.01 0.01e0.05 0.03 0.01 0.01e0.06
Moderate 0.02 0.01 0.01e0.03 0.02 0.01 0.01e0.03
High 0.01 0.01 0.00e0.02 0.01 0.01 0.00e0.02

Notes. SD ¼ standard deviation; CI ¼ confidence interval; T1 ¼ Time 1; T2 ¼ Time 2.

Fig. 3. Subjective well-being in school at T2 among adolescents as a function of scholastic competence at T2 and social acceptance at T1 with covariates.
Functions are graphed for two levels of social acceptance at T1: 1 standard deviation above the mean (High) and 1 standard deviation below the mean (Low). Note
that the graphs are for descriptive purposes only. All inferential analyses maintained the continuous values of scholastic competence at T2 and social acceptance
at T1. SA ¼ social acceptance; T1 ¼ Time 1; T2 ¼ Time 2.

subjective well-being in school can be explained in part by increased scholastic competence. Moreover, this indirect link is
stronger for adolescents who have low social acceptance. Given these findings, the present study contributes to the positive
subjective well-being literature in several ways.
First, the study provides additional empirical support for the self-system model as applied to adolescents' subjective well-
being in school. Prior research has empirically tested the self-system model among youth as applied to the school engage-
ment process (Connell, Halpem-Felsher, Clifford, Crichlow, & Usinger, 1995; Fall & Roberts, 2012), whereas a paucity of
research has applied the model to youths' positive subjective well-being. The findings thus extend empirical support for the
model to the research field of subjective well-being in the school domain with a relatively large sample of adolescent stu-
dents. Additionally, this study tested the model from a short-term longitudinal perspective in order to provide a more
stringent test and avoid the limitations of cross-sectional designs (Cole & Maxwell, 2003).
Second, the results of this study confirmed the first hypothesis, which emphasized the role of school-related social support
in adolescents' positive subjective well-being in school. Findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating a
strong association between the support of teachers and classmates to high levels of adolescents' subjective well-being in
school (e.g., Huebner, Suldo, Smith, & McKnight, 2004; Suldo, Bateman, et al., 2009; Suldo, Friedrich, et al., 2009). Teachers
often function similar to parents in guiding and caring for students, influencing their academic self-perceptions, which
nurture positive evaluations and emotional experiences in school (Lo, 2001; Martin, Marsh, McInerney, Green, & Dowson,
2007). The effect of classmate support also appears similar to that of teacher support (Jiang, Huebner, & Siddall, 2013).
Additionally, the results also echo the well-established notion that scholastic competence has a positive association with
school satisfaction (Castillo, Balaguer, & Duda, 2003; Suldo & Huebner, 2006). Indeed, competence is the most important
psychological need for adolescents (Bandura, 1997; Ve
ronneau, Koestner, & Abela, 2005) and is the most significant predictor
of their subjective well-being in school (Randolph, Kangas, & Ruokamo, 2010; Tian, Chen, & Huebner, 2014).
Third, in support of the second hypothesis, the findings suggested that adolescents who perceived more teacher support
and classmate support tended to have higher perceptions of scholastic competence, which in turn predicted higher subjective
well-being in school, consistent with the basic tenets of the self-system model. These findings in the school domain are
consistent with results in the context of overall subjective well-being (e.g., Danielsen et al., 2009). It is notable that scholastic
competence only partially mediated the relation between school-related social support and subjective well-being in school.
The partial mediation effect suggests the need to explore other possible mediating variables in order to understand fully the
social support e subjective well-being in school linkage. Variables related to autonomy needs or competence needs in other
domains according to the self-system model (Connell & Wellborn, 1991) may be especially suitable to explore. However, a
more nuanced consideration of the relations addressed by this study was to determine whether this mediation process is the
same for all adolescents or moderated by other factors.
 L. Tian et al. / Journal of Adolescence 45 (2015) 138e148 145

Therefore, in support of the third hypothesis, this study not only demonstrated the notion of the interaction of self-systems
with social context, but also the notion of internal interactions in self-systems. Given that adolescents with higher levels of
social acceptance believe that others are available to provide encouragement and help if necessary (Goodenow, 1993), they
may already feel positive about themselves and show increased subjective well-being in school as a function of school-related
social support, while the mediating effect of scholastic competence may be attenuated. In contrast, scholastic competence
was expected to exert a larger impact on adolescents with lower levels of social acceptance. The finding of internal in-
teractions in the self-system is also consistent with prior research, which suggested adolescents' developing abilities to
contemplate multiple aspects of the self (Cole, 1990; Linville, 1987). In other words, the moderated mediation model indicated
that for adolescents with negative perceptions of social acceptance, their subjective well-being in school may benefit from
positive perceptions of scholastic competence as a function of school-related social support. This strategy might be self-
protective in nature, reflecting that adolescents are cognitively capable of recalling a competent aspect of the self (perhaps
as a function of social support) while coping with a relatively incompetent aspect (Gorman, Kim, & Schimmelbusch, 2002;
Trautwein, Ko € ller, & Baumert, 2004).
The present study displayed several noteworthy limitations. First, all measures in this study were based on self-reports,
which could lead to common method variance issues. The use of multiple informants and methods of assessment would
be beneficial in future research. Second, we did not stratify the analyses by background variables. Future research may explore
whether these results can be applied to different subgroups, such as early, middle, and late adolescents. Third, we collected
data only at two time points; thus a portion of the path model is cross-sectional in nature, providing a less stringent test of the
model. Future research should ideally employ three or more waves of data collection. Fourth, the effect sizes of the moderated
mediation model were relatively small, which may result from methodological limitations with respect to measurement,
design, and method (Bollen, 1989; McCartney & Rosenthal, 2000), or the effect sizes may further highlight the complexity of
the moderated mediation process. Future researchers should provide more stringent tests of the model to clarify the meaning
of the effect size. Finally, we were able to control for the cluster effect at the school level, but not at the class level. Future
studies should consider using a multi-level modeling approach suggested by some researchers to account for the nested
datasets (Klein & Kozlowski, 2000; Wu & Kwok, 2012).
The current study also offered important implications for the promotion of optimal subjective well-being among ado-
lescents in schools. First, our findings highlight that schools will function as psychologically healthy environments if they
meet students' developmental needs and contribute to their subjective well-being. Thus, it is pertinent for schools to cultivate
positive, caring, and supportive school climates. Second, the finding also supported the hypothesized important roles of both
teachers and classmates in contributing to their subjective well-being in school. Specifically, teachers should give students
more timely feedback about their academic performance, provide appropriate instructional assistance and emotional help,
and encourage students to help each other in learning and life. Third, social support interventions designed to enhance
adolescents' subjective well-being in school through improved perceptions of scholastic competence are likely to be more
effective for those with lower levels of perceived social acceptance. Thus, school administrators and teachers should pay more
attention to students who are less competent in both the social and academic arenas (Kagan, Moore, & Bredekamp, 1998). In
sum, schools should establish systematic plans to provide school-related social support in particular to strengthen adoles-
cents' sense of competence in various areas and help them feel being cared for and loved by others. As a result, adolescents
should experience greater well-being in their school lives (Noddings, 2003).

Acknowledgments

The present study was funded by Humanities Social Sciences Research Planning Foundation from Ministry of Education,
2015 (No. 15YJA190003).

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