Promoting Social Identities as Resources—The Role of Ethnic and National Identity Development for Adolescents' Global Identity Coherence in Ethnic‐Culturally Diverse Schools in Germany

Ethnic and national identities can be meaningful social identities promoting students' well-being and academic engagement. Unclear is whether and how each identity contributes to ethnic-culturally minoritized versus majoritized adolescents' global identity coherence. Using longitudinal data collected in three cohorts during 2018-2022, we conducted multigroup mediation analyses, testing whether a school-based identity intervention promoted ethnic and national identities (exploration, resolution) 1 week post-intervention (T2), which in turn, promoted identity coherence (more synthesis, less confusion) 8 weeks postintervention (T3). The results showed that the intervention promoted ethnic identity exploration for both groups and ethnic identity resolution for majoritized adolescents. For both groups, ethnic identity resolution predicted less identity confusion. Only for majoritized adolescents, the intervention promoted ethnic identity resolution, which in turn promoted less identity confusion and more synthesis, perhaps due to ceiling effects of minoritized adolescents' ethnic identity resolution. Findings emphasize the role of students' ethnic identity for global identity coherence as a potential resource for their development. The role of national identity on global identity coherence is less clear.