Racial-ethnic Identity Development In Children Of Hui Nationality

Racial-ethnic identity is a critical aspect of children's self-concept development,particularly for ethnic minority groups. Studies on racial-ethnic identity development in othercountries indicated significant associations between racial-ethnic identity with mental health,stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination, and play an important role in the group relations.Compared to our country, the majority of ethnic identity research have focused on relationshipwith mental health, acculturation, national identity and religious identity. However, there is noone have studied racial-ethnic identity from the perspective of developmental psychology.Which include the formation of ethnic identity in children, development across different ages,its significance implication in children's self-development.The present research was established with a sample of Muslim children, using thequestionnaire and experimental methods, explored the formation and development ofracial-ethnic identity in young children, the relationship between racial-ethnic identity andindividual mental health, group relations related variables, and the development of implicitand explicit race attitudes.Study one, with a sample of116hui children between3and6years of age, using thedolls and pictures experiment, explored the age at which children could get ethnic awareness,by comparing the development of in-group and out-group favoritism across the four ages. Theresults show that: both the dolls and pictures experiment obtained relatively consistent resultsthat the classification of ethnic consciousness and in-group favoritism appeared until4yearsof age.Study two, with a sample of285middle school students, using the questionnairemethods, in order to explore development of racial-ethnic identity in different ages. We alsoinvestigated the relationship between racial-ethnic identity and individual mental health,group relations related variables, including collective self-esteem, depression-happiness,individual self-esteem, out-group attitudes. The results showed:(1) On the four stages ofethnic identity, with a little less than five percent of the subjects were at the diffuse stage,about twenty-seven percent of the subjects were involoved in foreclosed, just over twenty-onepercent of the subjects were at the moratorium stage, about half students were involoved inethnic identity achieved.(2) Such ethnic identity scores in Hui students increased between theages of12and15years and then decline after the age of17, Out-group attitude increased during these ages and then rised faster after the age of17.(3)Collective self-esteem played amediating effect between ethnic identity and individual self-esteem.(4)Collective self-esteemor individual self-esteem played a mediating effect between ethnic identity anddepression-happiness.Study three, with a sample of73hui people, we measured the development of implicitrace attitudes toward social and nonsocial groups in6-year-olds,10-year-olds, and adults bythe Implicit Association Test. We also used self-reported Preference method to check theirexplicit attitudes, to view the developmental progression of such attitudes across the threeages. The results showed:(1) Compare with the explicit in-group preference, the implicitpreference of6years old,10years old and adult Muslim students increased with the growthof age.on the Basis of the above three studies, the major conclusions are made as follow:(1)Children could produce classification of ethnic consciousness and the in-groupfavoritism until4years of age;(2)Ethnic identity is a critical aspect of children's self-concept, which is an importantsource of self-esteem, it has an important relationship with the mental health of children;(3) In adolescence, the majority of students were at the more mature stage.(4)Compare with the explicit in-group preference, the implicit preference of6years old,10years old and adult Muslim students increased with the growth of age.