民族认同的概念、测量及研究述评

民族认同对个人心理健康、国家团结和谐有着重大意义，已成为当今研究中的热点问题。文章针对民族认同涵义正在逐步拓宽的发展趋势，分析了民族认同的内涵及与相关概念的关系。在描述民族认同测量多维性的基础上，梳理并比较了MEIM、MEIM-R和EIS等应用广泛的民族认同测量工具。归纳了以民族认同作为调节变量、中介变量的最新研究及其相关研究。未来民族认同研究深化的基本途径为关键术语一致化、研究方法精确化和评估水平全面化。

A Review on the Conception,Measurement and Empirical Researches of Ethnic Identity

Ethnic identity has been focused on by ethnology,sociology,psychology and anthropology.According to the widening trend of the connotation,the concept of ethnic identity was analyzed.Some scholars emphasized belonging to an ethnic group or shared values and attitudes.And others emphasized acceptance of national culture.In short,the definition of ethnic identity was limited to individuals’ ethnicity and national ownership in previous studies,as research progresses,the connotation of ethnic identity shows a widening trend of development gradually.Furthermore,there was much confusion among ethnic identity and its related concepts.So the relationships between ethnic identity and its related concepts including racial identity,national identity and culture identity were compared and discussed.According to Kuhn’s paradigm theory,Cokley(2007) first proposed the measurement paradigm of ethnic identity.It was discussed by comparing the scales MEIM,MEIM-R and EIS.Based on the belief that ethnic identity is a general phenomenon with elements that are common across all ethnic group members,MEIM is conceptualized to measure three aspects:affirmation,achievement and behaviors.To improve the construct validity and reliability of the preexisting MEIM,a revised measure called MEIM-R was introduced.MEIM-R has two factors(exploration and commitment),and each factor has 3 items.To address this limitation in the MEIM,another less known but promising measure called the Ethnic Identity Scale(EIS) was introduced to assess the three distinct components of ethnic identity:exploration,resolution and affirmation.From the empirical point of view,the latest researches in which ethnic identity was used as the moderator or mediator were summarized,but in different cultures,the regulating role and mediating effect of ethnic identity need to be tested and explored.The relevant studies indicated high levels of ethnic identity was positively associated with self-esteem,confidence,well-being and learning engagement,while negatively associated with misfortune,anxiety,depression,loneliness,suicidal ideation and sense of worthlessness.Western ethnic identity empirical researches made a lot of achievements,but the researchers used different concepts and scales.So the empirical research results of ethnic identity still need to be integrated and improved in terms of the clear and consistent concept as well as the unity of scales.Then the new findings will be obtained.In future,the basic ways to deepen ethnic identity study include the following:First,a good way to unify the inconsistent concepts should be explored with efforts;secondly,future research that follows youth over time is required to understand the process of ethnic identity development across adolescence;lastly,identity processes are complex,so future research that explores identity processes on a global level simultaneously and a domain-or situation-specific level will be valuable.