G. XUE ET AL.
146
Further examination of the criterion-related validity showed
that relationship management had a significant impact on life
satisfaction, physical, psychological and social health, while the
influence of performance management appeared to be marginal.
What is more, both performance management and relationship
management did not have significant impact on GPA.
These findings show that management on performance and
relationship constitute undergraduate students’ self-manage-
ment in daily life. This conclusion differs from previous studies
on self-management of people with physical or psychological
problems, but appears to in accordance with findings about
self-management of managers. Studies have revealed that
manager’s self-management could be categorized into two di-
mensions: task and relationship (Conway, 1999). The result of
this study shows that self-management of undergraduate stu-
dents can also be divided into two similar aspects.
As to the validity of the scale, confirmatory factor analysis
showed that the scale had good structural validity. Multiple
regression analysis in Study 2 indicated that relationship man-
agement was a key contributor to life satisfaction, physical,
psychological and social health. People who manage their emo-
tions and personal relationships well have higher life satisfac-
tion and enjoy better health. It is an indication of good crite-
rion-related validity for the dimension of relationship manage-
ment. Performance management did not show a strong influ-
ence on life satisfaction and three types of health. However,
there is not sufficient evidence to draw the conclusion that per-
formance management does not contribute to life satisfaction
and better health; the criterion-related validity of the scale
needs further examination. In addition, examination on the
relationship between GPA and two self-management factors
also did not provide explicit evidence about the influence of
self-management on academic achievement. This result is sim-
ilar to previous studies (Long, Gaynor, Erwin, & Williams,
1994). It is possible that many factors besides performance
management affect GPA. Therefore, further studies need to
select other indices of performance management to examine its
criterion-related validity.
Although studies about self-management have a long history
and broad application in clinical and organizational behavior
areas, undergraduate students’ self-management in daily life
has not been given enough attention. The present research is
important in two main aspects. First, it calls for attention to the
self-management of undergraduate students. Good self-mana-
gement benefits not only students’ life quality in university, but
also their future development. Studies in this strand will pro-
vide helpful information as to how to guide students better
manage themselves. This effort to improve students’ life quality
in university is also in accordance with the development of
positive psychology. Second, this study provides a useful tool
to measure undergraduate students’ self-management ability.
Because previous scales chiefly focused on specific aspect of
self-management and targeted specific groups of people, they
are not applicable to undergraduate students. The present study
developed a two-factor model of self-management scale based
on random samples of undergraduates. Although the criterion
of performance management needs further examination, the
scale’s internal consistency reliability and structural validity
were verified to be satisfactory.
Two points about this study need special attention. One is the
generalizability of the findings to other users groups. Because
this scale was developed based on samples of Chinese under-
graduate students, its quality needs further verification when
used on other user groups. Second is the validity of the scale
needs further examination, especially the dimension of per-
formance management. Results in Study 2 showed that per-
formance management did not have a significant impact on life
satisfaction and three aspects of health. GPA was not signifi-
cantly related to performance management too. Therefore, in-
formation about the effect of good performance management
should be collected in various ways to examine the crite-
rion-related validity of performance management.
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