Collective identity assets for psychological well-being in Slovene minority and Italian majority adolescents in Italy

Abstract

<B>Background</B><br /> We examined core assets of collective identity for enhanced psychological well-being among hardly investigated Slovene ethnic minority and Italian majority youth in Italy. The Slovene minority is an autochthonous minority living in Italy since the 6th century.<br /> <br /> <B>Participants and procedure</B><br /> We tested a model based on the notion that collective identity derives from familial, ethnic and religious identities as important sources of identification for youth in line with prior work on the salience and relations among these sources. Participants were 114 Slovene and 144 Italian adolescents (aged 14 to 18 years old) living in the North-East of Italy. They filled in standardized measures on ethnic, national, familial and religious identity, the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Positive Affective Schedule.<br /> <B>Results</B><br /> Path models showed that stronger collective identity was related to higher scores of perceived psychological well-being. Interestingly, for the Slovene minority youth, ethnic Slovenian identity was unrelated to collective identity. Overall, among all youth, all identity components loaded into a single factor of collective identity, confirming previous studies with bicultural minority youth.<br /> <br /> <B>Conclusions</B><br /> The findings shed light on the path linking multiple aspects of collective identities together to adolescents’ well-being and are useful in pragmatic terms for improving and facilitating assets of individual and social/collective well-being and functioning of youth.