The purpose of this study is to explore factors that affect high school students adaptability by categorizing them into student and school levels. Overall 352 schools and 4,567 high school students were involved in the
study, which use data from the Seventh Gyeonggi Education Panel Study (GEPS). A hierarchical linear model(HLM) was employed for analysis; school adaptability was categorized into sub-factors of students friend and teacher
adaptabilities; and independent variables were segregated into student and school level and analyzed hierarchically.
According to the analysis, the factors influencing the school adaptability of high school students were gender, self-esteem, self-efficiency, and parenting attitude at the individual level. As a sub-factor of school adaptability, it was analyzed that the factors affecting students friend and teacher adaptabilities were similar, although there were differences in the factors affecting female students in students friend adjustment and male students in teacher adjustment.
At the school level, innovation schools, co-education, and teachers cooperation were factors that had a statistically significant infulence on school adaptability. In terms of students friend and teacher adaptabilities, which are sub-factors of school adaptability, innovation schools had a positive effect in general. There was a difference between the type of establishment(co-education) and the degree of teacher cooperation that had a significant effect only on teacher adjustment. Based on these findings, this study highlighted the implications for high school students to improve their school adjustment.