Variants of social adaptation in Chinese adolescents: A latent profile analysis

This study aims to explore the characteristics of social adaptation between only children and children with siblings among Chinese adolescents, and examine gender differences in each profile, between the two samples. The participants were 1455 only children, and 665 children with siblings. Based on their self-reported social adaptation using the Social Adaptation Scale for Children and Adolescents, the latent profile analysis (LPA) showed that only children were classified into the high social adaptation (25.7%), middle social adaptation (32.3%), and low social adaptation groups (42.0%). Children with siblings were classified into the highest social adaptation (25.6%), low environment satisfaction (11.0%), low opinion acceptance (27.5%), and lowest social adaptation groups (35.9%). Moreover, the results showed that for both groups of children, female and male participants performed differently on different profiles. This study’s findings have implications for developing appropriate interventions targeted in the diverse patterns of the social adaptation of only children and children with siblings among Chinese adolescents.