Relationships between school caste and school adjustment among junior high school students

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to investigate relationships between "school caste" and school adjustment, focusing on social dominance orientation (SDO). "School caste" was defined as "inter-peer group hierarchy". Participants in the study were Japanese junior high school students (N=1,179). Inter-and intra-peer group status was measured from students' subjective answers to questions about inter-and intra-peer group status. Also, social dominance orientation and subjective school adjustment were measured from students' self-reports. Whether social dominance orientation mediated effects of inter-peer group status on school adjustment was examined. Despite controlling for effects of intra-group status, group-based dominance (i.e., social dominance orientation-dominance, or SDO-D, a sub-dimension of social dominance orientation) positively mediated effects of inter-peer group status on subjective school adjustment. In other words, students in the higher status peer groups tended to have higher group-based dominance, and, in turn, higher group-based dominance caused better subjective school adjustment. Thus, the results of the present study revealed that, among junior high school students, the relationship between school caste and school adjustment appears to be mediated by social dominance orientation. The discussion deals with the possibility that those students who were affiliated with higher status peer groups had better school adjustment because of their preference for dominating other groups.