An Investigation Of The Mongolian Middle School Students' Ethnic Identity

The aim of this study is to researching on the Mongolian middle school students'ethnic identity in the context of different society, family and education, and makes clear the relation of ethnic identity and state self-esteem in this context, which is based on the social identity theory and acculturation theory.The questionnaire method was used to collect data. The items of the questionnaire were gathered from the oversea and inland scales of ethnic identity. After preliminary test, we developed a formal Ethnic Identity Scale (EIS)In formal test, we investigated 645 adolescents, in Chifen of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The results suggested that:(1) The EIS including 20 items had good reliability and validity. It had four dimensions: cognition, evaluation, feeling and behavior.(2) The factors of society are positively related to their level of ethnic identity. Ethnic identity of the students from a pasturing area is significantly higher than that of the students from rural and urban. Students who have more Mongolian friends and use more Mongolian language have higher ethnic identity.(3) The factors of family are positively related to their level of ethnic identity. The children's ethnic identity increases as their father's educational attainment. The students whose parents are all Mongolian have higher ethnic identity than the students whose parents are not. The students whose parents are herdsman have higher ethnic identity than the students whose parents are not.(4) The factor of education is positively related to their level of ethnic identity. The Mongolian students who accept the Mongolian education have significantly higher ethnic identity than that of students who accept Han education. However, the regression analysis shows that the ethnic identity is mainly determined by social and family factors but not the education factor.(5) Ethnic identity and Self-esteem had significant and positive correlation. The Mongolian students'ethnic identity is higher than the Han students'.