The Structure Of Adolescents' National Sentiment Of Being Chinese And Its Aroused By National Symbols

Chinese national identity includes four dimensions: cognition, evaluation, sentiment, as well as behavior, in which sentiment dimension refers to individual's attachment to the nation and the sense of belonging, namely, psychologically regarding himself as a member of the nation.The present research aimed at exploring the structure of adolescent Chinese national sentiment, investigating the present situation of Chinese national sentiment in adolescents older than 14 years old, and also examining the impact of demographic variables, such as gender, ethnic membership, and parental education level, on Chinese national sentiment.Based on related literature home and abroad together with relevant domestic scales, we developed a formal Chinese National Sentiment Scale, which had experienced preliminary test.In the formal test, we investigated 708 adolescents over 14 years old as samples. They came from Wuhan and Enshi in Hubei province and Zhuji in Zhejiang province. The results were as follows:(1) CNSS had favorable reliability and validity. With thirteen projects included, CNSS had four dimensions: sense of subjective prominence, sense of attachment and ownership, sense of responsibility and mission, sense of self-esteem and self-pride.(2) On the whole, adolescents had strong Chinese national sentiment. Among the four dimensions, the scores in sense of subjective prominence together with sense of self-esteem and self-pride were much higher.(3) Demography variables had little effect on the youth's Chinese national sentiment. Total variance explained is less than 10%. There was a positive correlation between living in minority habitat and the total score. The former had the same relation with sense of attachment and ownership, and sense of self-esteem and self-pride. However, there was a negative correlation between parental education level and total score. The former is also negatively correlated with score of the four dimensions. Gender and whether having oversea experience have no effect on the total score and score of the four dimensions.Based on CNSS, we further studied the catalysis of national symbols and then we drew the following conclusions:(1) Chinese national symbols can significantly stimulate Chinese national sentiment of adolescent, including the Han and minority youths.(2) The catalysis of national symbols has no significant difference between the Han and minority youths.