SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 2013, 41(8), 1245-1252

© Society for Personality Research

http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2013.41.8.1245

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-SUPPORTING BEHAVIORS

AND SELF-CONCEPT AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS IN CHINA

HUI LING
Hunan Normal University
YANG-MEI LUO
Southwest University
JIAN-REN ZHANG
Hunan Normal University

Our aim in this study was to explore the relationship between self-supporting behaviors and
self-concept among primary school students in China. Participants were 193 primary school
students in grades 5 and 6 who completed the Self-supporting Behaviors Questionnaire for
Children Aged 6-12 (SBQ 6-12) and the Tennessee Self-concept Scale (TSCS).We divided
the responses into two groups of a high self-supporting group, consisting of the highest 27%
of the SBQ 6-12 total scores, and a low self-supporting group consisting of the lowest 27%
of the total scores. The high self-supporting group got significantly higher scores than did the
low self-supporting group in all subscales of the TSCS. All scores for subscales of the TSCS
were significantly and positively correlated with scores for all dimensions of the SBQ 6-12.
Thus, the children’s self-supporting behaviors were closely related to their self-concept. The
higher the level of self-supporting behavior, the more positive was the child’s self-concept.

Keywords: self-supporting behavior, self-concept, primary school student, China, Tennessee

Self-concept Scale, Self-supporting Behaviors Questionnaire.

Self-concept refers to an individual’s perception and evaluation of his/her

own mental, physical, and social functional status, which is the key of the

Hui Ling, Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University; Yang-Mei Luo, School of
Psychology, Southwest University; Jian-Ren Zhang, Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal
University.
Jian-Ren Zhang is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Culture and Social Development,
Southwest University.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Jian-Ren Zhang, Department of
Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, People’s Republic of China. Email:
zjren1962@yahoo.com.cn

1245
1246 SELF-SUPPORTING BEHAVIORS AND SELF-CONCEPT

personality structure. Self-supporting behavior is a concept proposed by Huang,

drawn from the dimensions of self that are valued highly in traditional Chinese
culture (Huang, 2004; Huang & Che, 2003; Huang & Xia, 2004). From the
psychological perspective, becoming self-supporting is a process by which the
individual develops from being dependent and becomes independent (Huang &
Li, 2001). Self-supporting behaviors of children are achieved in the process of
an individual’s development of self-concept. During the developmental process,
individuals’ desire to be independent, act autonomously, and freely express
themselves becomes stronger, and their self-supporting behaviors also increase,
with self-consciousness and self-awareness increasingly awakening (Ling, 2006).
Findings in previous research show that the greater the degree of autonomy
and independence of an individual, the more positive is the self-concept he or
she has; and the more dependent and passive an individual is, the more negative
is the self-concept of the individual (Wang, Liu, Lei, & Chang, 2002; Wei &
Cui, 2004). Although self-supporting behavior is not the equivalent of autonomy
and independence, which are important concepts of western culture (Anderson
& Anderson, 1994; Deci & Ryan, 1987; Eysenck, 1970), it is closely associated
with these concepts (Ling, 2006; Wei & Cui, 2004; Xia & Huang, 2006). In
our study, we used the Self-supporting Behaviors Questionnaire for Children
Aged 6-12 (SBQ 6-12; Ling, Huang, Yang, & Wang, 2012) and the Tennessee
Self-concept Scale (TSCS; Fitts, 1965) to explore the relationship between
the levels of self-supporting behavior and self-concept among grades 5 and 6
primary school students in China.

Method

Participants
We used a random cluster sampling method to conduct an investigation with
193 primary school students in grades 5 and 6, (100 boys and 93 girls) whose
average age was 10.56 ± 1.02 years. We divided the responses from the students
into two groups according to their total score in the SBQ 6-12: a high-self-
supporting group, which comprised the 52 highest scoring students (27% out of
193), and a low self-supporting group, which comprised the 52 lowest scoring
students (27% out of 193).

Data Collection
In this study, we used two instruments, the Self-supporting Behaviors
Questionnaire for Children Aged 6-12 and the Tennessee Self-concept Scale,
to measure the self-supporting behaviors and self-concept of primary school
students.
The SBQ for children aged between 6 and 12 years (Ling, 2012) contains
49 items in two dimensions: field dimension and function dimension. The
 SELF-SUPPORTING BEHAVIORS AND SELF-CONCEPT 1247
field dimension includes activities in general, school performance, daily life,
socialization, and moral conduct; the function dimension includes self-deter-
mination, acting independently, and undertaking responsibility. The questionnaire
has shown good reliability and validity with clear factor structure and is, thus, a
useful tool to measure the self-supporting behaviors of children aged between 6
and 12 years (Ling et al., 2012).
The Tennessee Self-concept Scale has 70 items (Fitts, 1965). Lin (1980)
revised this scale (the third edition) for use in Taiwan. The TSCS is composed
of two dimensions: structure dimension and content dimension. The structure
dimension includes self-identity, self-satisfaction, and self-action; and the
content dimension includes physical self, moral self, psychological self, family
self, and social self. The integrated dimension is concerned with the total score
of self and self-criticism. We assessed eight factors of the structure and content
dimensions. The higher the score, the more positive is the self-concept. The
TSCS has been used in several previous studies for assessing Chinese children’s
self-concept, and has shown good reliability and validity in this context (Ling,
Zhang, Huang, & Xiong, 2011; Zhang & Zhang, 2007).

Procedure and Data Analysis

We collected the data for this study in school classes. All the students were
asked to read the questionnaire and scale items by themselves and independently
answer the items in each. It usually takes about half an hour to complete the two
instruments.
All statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS software (Statistical
Package for Social Science). We performed independent samples t tests to
compare the self-concept level of the high and low self-supporting groups, and
we computed Pearson correlations between scores on the TSCS and the SBQ
6-12.

Results

Comparison Between High and Low Self-Supporting Groups

The high self-supporting group had significantly higher scores than did the low
self-supporting group on all subscales of the TSCS (see Table 1).

Table 1. Comparison of High Self-Supporting and Low Self-Supporting Groups

High self-supporting group Low self-supporting group t p

Physiological self 53.20 ± 4.31 44.73 ± 7.45 6.175 .000
Moral self 53.37 ± 5.47 44.72 ± 7.34 5.885 .000
Psychological self 52.43 ± 5.80 41.76 ± 7.43 6.943 .000
Family self 54.75 ± 4.91 44.36 ± 9.94 5.863 .000
1248 SELF-SUPPORTING BEHAVIORS AND SELF-CONCEPT

Table 1 continued

High self-supporting group Low self-supporting group t p

Social self 51.17 ± 5.61 41.83 ± 7.60 6.161 .000

Self-identity 10.83 ± 5.15 87.59 ± 1.77 6.744 .000
Self-satisfaction 96.82 ± 1.35 85.19 ± 13.50 4.203 .000
Self-action 92.71 ± 1.84 77.88 ± 11.15 5.837 .000

Relationship Between Children’s Self-Supporting Behaviors and

Self-Concept
Results of our correlation analysis suggested that there was a positive
correlation between scores on the subscales of the TSCS and dimensions of the
SBQ 6-12. The more positive the self-concept of the child, the higher was the
level of self-supporting behaviors. See Table 2 for details.

Table 2. Correlations Between Self-Supporting Behaviors and Self-Concept

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

General self-supporting .472** .414** .427** .401** .471** .346** .324** .481**
School self-supporting .500** .506** .471** .464** .465** .540** .344** .491**
Daily life self-supporting .343** .361** .342** .369** .361** .448** .340** .336**
Social self-supporting .217** .268** .273** .236** .372** .350** .275** .344**
Moral self-supporting .431** .432** .413** .368** .340** .394** .305** .327**
Self-determination .436** .358** .347** .305** .351** .392** .272** .403**
Self-action .536** .525** .513** .487** .558** .542** .412** .560**
Responsibility undertaking .337** .478** .421** .450** .386** .463** .331** .366**
Self-supporting total score .494** .519** .501** .472** .502** .550** .380** .528**

Note. 1 = Physiological self; 2 = Moral self; 3 = Psychological self; 4 = Family self; 5 = Social self;
6 = Self-identity; 7 = Self-satisfaction; 8 = Self-action.
** p < .01.

Discussion

The results of this research showed that all the subscale scores of the TSCS for
children in the high self-supporting group were significantly higher than those for
children in the low self-supporting group, and a significantly positive correlation
existed between the scores for subscales of the TSCS and the dimensions of
the SBQ 6-12. These results suggested that, the more positive the students felt
about themselves, the more they would become self-supporting, autonomous,
and independent. These results are consonant with those of a number of previous
studies in which researchers have explored the relationship between self-concept
and academic motivation, and in which the results have demonstrated that
self-concept significantly determines autonomous motivation. Our findings are
also consonant with the self-determination theory in which it is proposed that
 SELF-SUPPORTING BEHAVIORS AND SELF-CONCEPT 1249
self-competence (a similar term to self-concept) is an important antecedent of
autonomous motivation (Guay, Ratelle, Roy, & Litalien, 2010).
As an individual’s perception and evaluation of his/her own mental, physical,
and social functional status, self-concept is the key to personality structures. The
relationship between self-concept and self-supporting behavior may be explained
partly by the concept of learned helplessness proposed by Dweck (1975), that
is, a mental state and behavior pattern of powerlessness when an individual
is faced with difficulty, failure, or frustration. Findings in research (Dweck &
Elliott, 1983; Dweck & Leggett, 1988) have shown that when children who have
the same ability in domains such as academic, cognitive, and social behavior,
face difficulties and challenges there are two different tendencies: a learned
helplessness tendency and an autonomy tendency. The child with a tendency
toward learned helplessness would underestimate his or her ability, give up, and
shrink back; however, the child with a tendency toward autonomy would show
confidence, patience, and persistence, and would rely on himself/herself to meet
the challenge. Dweck and Elliott (1983) believe that these two tendencies in
children mean that each of the two types has a different self-concept system. The
self-concept of children who behave with learned helplessness is a stationary,
specific system and these children are passive, dependent, and afraid of losing,
and maintain their self-esteem by easy success and avoiding failure; however, the
self-concept of autonomous children is a trainable and developing system and
these children like overcoming challenges and, thus, promoting the development
of their self-esteem. According to this theory, it is suggested that children with a
disparate self-concept because of different motivation modes (Wu, 1994), would
behave differently in different situations, behaving either with confidence and
autonomy or displaying dependent behavior and shrinking from action.
The relationship between self-concept and self-supporting behavior of children
may not be completely unidirectional and straightforward; many other complex
factors and interactive processes may be involved (Wang, 2008; Zhang & Zhang,
2007). In the light of the findings in our study, we may conclude here that there
is a close relationship between self-concept and self-supporting behavior of
children, but the mechanism underlying the relationship between self-concept
and self-supporting behavior needs further study.

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 SELF-SUPPORTING BEHAVIORS AND SELF-CONCEPT 1251
Appendix I
Sample items from the Self-supporting Behaviors Questionnaire
for Children Aged 6-12 (SBQ6-12)

I believe that I can deal well with my business.

I often hope that others can decide for me.
I hope my parents can allow me to decide on my own business.
I would not go to school on time if my parents do not urge me to do so.
I do not need others’ help in daily life (i.e., dressing, eating, washing etc.).
If I do not finish my homework on time, it is usually my own problem.
If I did something wrong, it is usually because I cannot control myself.

Appendix 2
Sample items from the Tennessee Self-concept Scale (TSCS)

I am an attractive person.
I have a family who always help me in any trouble.
I am a member of a happy family.
I am not loved by my family.
I am satisfied to be just who I am.
I am as smart as I want to be.
I am full of aches and pains.
I am a sick person.
I am an honest person.
I am satisfied with my moral behavior.
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