The Development Of National Identity In 11 To 20 Years Old Chinese Adolescents

The present study explored the dimensions of national identity, and investigated the present situation and the development of national identity in 11-20 years old adolescents. In addition, it examined the impact of school, family background, ethnic membership, and so on, on their national identity, and the relationship between national identity and self identity.Based on the literature as well as the open questionnaire, we developed a National Identity Scale, which had been proved to be reliable and valid by two pretestings (N = 189, N=219).The sample of the investigation consisted of 1152 adolescents at the age of 11, 14, 17 and 20. It was found that:(1) NIS had good reliability and validity, and its reduced edition with 28 items contained six dimensions, which were positive emotion-evaluation, public collective self-esteem, interdependency beliefs, negative emotion, self-categorisation, and importance to self-concept.(2) On the whole, 11 -20 years old adolescents had strong national identity, and the degree was varied according to different dimensions. The scores from the highest to the lowest were as follows: positive emotion-evaluation, self-categorisation, interdependency beliefs, public collective self-esteem, importance to self-concept, and negative emotion.(3) The development of adolescents' national identity was as follows: the score of national identity in adolescents aged 11 was the highest, and it decreased at 14 and 17 years old, then increased at 20 years old, being still lower than the score of adolescents at 11 years old. Among the six dimensions, the scores of positive emotion-evaluation, public collective self-esteem, interdependency beliefs dimensions decreased with age; the score of negative emotion showed few changesexcept that the score of 14 years old was higher than that of 11 and 17 years old; self-categorisation was developed in U-shape; and importance to self-concept increased with age, with 20 years old getting the highest score.(4) There were significant differences among different schools, family backgrounds, ethnic memberships and so on.(5) The correlation between national identity and self-identity was low, and the correlation between each dimension and self-identity ranged from .289 to .040.(6) Among the factors that influenced national identity, their effects ranged from the greatest to the smallest as follows: self-identity, age, family background, and school.