The Dynamic Relationship between Self-Identity Crisis, Ethnic Identity, Patriotic Sentiment, and Life Satisfaction: An Empirical Study Based on Cross-Lagged Modeling

This study explored the dynamic relationships among four variables: self-identity crisis, ethnic identity, patriotic sentiment and life satisfaction using a cross-lagged model. Longitudinal data were collected from three time points: T1 (first year), T2 (second year), and T3 (third year) of junior high school, tracking 403 ethnic minority adolescents in Southwest China. The findings are as follows: (1) All four variables exhibited strong temporal stability, with autoregressive path coefficients ranging from 0.14 to 0.56; (2) self-identity crisis negatively predicted ethnic identity, patriotic sentiment, and life satisfaction at certain time points; (3) ethnic identity significantly and positively predicted patriotic sentiment; (4) life satisfaction significantly and negatively predicted self-identity crisis at subsequent time points; (5) all four variables showed significant correlations within each time point. These results reveal the dynamic, interactive relationship between psychological identity and emotional experience in ethnic minority adolescent groups. They also provide empirical evidence for adolescent mental health and patriotic education.