| The global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has had a major impact on human life and the global economy.College students are the main force for the future development of society,and under the background of the epidemic,colleges and universities actively carry out online teaching,which not only brings convenience,but also induces fear,anger,anxiety,pessimism and other emotions,causing greater psychological pressure,and causing serious negative impacts on college students’ mental health and happiness.The relationship and connection between groups is a key part of the future development and socialization process of individuals,social connection plays an important role in the emotional and social adjustment of college students,the feeling of connecting with others is related to higher psychological well-being,and the impact of social factors on individual psychological behavior needs to be mediated by factors related to selfconcept,and core self-evaluation as an individual’s stable and profound personality trait will directly affect his view or mentality of the whole society.Based on social identity theory and previous research,this study uses a combination of questionnaire and experimental methods to investigate the effect of group identity on happiness and its mechanisms of action in the context of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic and the current situation of group identity and happiness of university students in China.Study 1 explored the predictive role and mediating pathways of group identity on happiness among university students through a questionnaire method,using a combination of online and offline questionnaires,and administered to 510 university students who had experienced epidemic closure management on group identity,happiness,positive and negative emotions,social connectedness and core selfevaluation,while using SPSS 26.0 and the data were analysed and processed using SPSS 26.0 and the SPSS macro developed by Hayes(2012).The results showed that the positive predictive effect of group identity on well-being was significant;the chain mediating effect of social bonding and core self-evaluation was significant,i.e.group identity of university students in the context of the epidemic could lead to higher levels of well-being by increasing their social bonding and core self-evaluation.Study 2 was an experimental study,in which the causal relationship between the variables in the model was tested through an experimental method.A pre-experiment was first conducted with 74 subjects to confirm the validity of the manipulated material.Then a formal experiment was initiated with 333 university students as subjects,using a one-way between-group design(group identity type: social category,group relationship,interpersonal relationship)to manipulate the subjects’ group identity type separately to examine its effect on well-being and the chain mediating effect of social connectedness and core self-evaluation.The results found that participants who activated the high level group identity would experience more happiness than those who activated the medium and low level group identities,and that this was accompanied by a higher sense of social connectedness and core self-worth.Based on the data analysis and discussion of the above two studies,this paper concludes that(1)group identity of university students in the context of the epidemic has a significant positive predictive effect on the level of subjective well-being;(2)social connectedness and core self-esteem can play a chain mediating role in the relationship between group identity and subjective well-being among university students(3)activating social categories is more effective than activating social networks(group relations,interpersonal relationships)participants reported better life satisfaction;(4)social category groups reporting more well-being tended to be accompanied by higher levels of social connectedness and core self-worth. |
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