Harmonious and obsessive passion, cultural identity, and mental health in Chinese students of traditional versus Western music: a national multi-institutional comparison

Background University music students carry an elevated burden of depression, anxiety, and performance-related distress, yet the motivational processes separating adaptive from maladaptive engagement remain only partly understood, and little is known about how they differ between the traditional Chinese and Western training tracks that coexist in Chinese tertiary music education. Drawing on the dualistic model of passion, we compared the two tracks on passion, cultural identity, and mental health, and tested identity as mediator of the track differences and as buffer of the obsessive passion-distress link. Methods A cross-sectional online survey recruited full-time music majors from 32 institutions across seven regions of China. After attention-check exclusions, 546 students remained (266 traditional, 280 Western; 59.3% women; M age = 20.63 years, SD = 1.33). Participants completed the Passion Scale, an adapted Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure referencing Chinese cultural heritage, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, and a brief music performance anxiety scale. Group differences, moderated regression, and bootstrap mediation analyses were estimated. Results Traditional-track students reported higher harmonious passion ( d = 0.32), stronger Chinese cultural identity ( d = 0.55), and higher well-being ( d = 0.39), alongside lower obsessive passion ( d = 0.30), lower distress ( d = 0.26), and lower music performance anxiety ( d = 0.41). Harmonious passion predicted higher well-being and lower distress, whereas obsessive passion predicted higher distress and performance anxiety. Cultural identity moderated the obsessive passion-distress link: the slope was strong at low identity ( b = 6.40, p < 0.001) but non-significant at high identity ( b = 1.31, p = 0.107). The group difference in harmonious passion was partly carried by cultural identity, indirect effect = −0.156, 95% CI [−0.225, −0.096], and the serial path through identity and passion to well-being was significant, indirect effect = −0.315, 95% CI [−0.489, −0.176]. Conclusion The two training tracks differ in the motivational and identity fabric surrounding practice. A strong bond with Chinese cultural heritage is associated with more harmonious engagement and a weaker obsessive engagement-distress link, suggesting a culturally grounded lever conservatoires could test for protecting student mental health.