Identity resources for positive adaptation of Roma ethnic minority youth in Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Kosovo, and Romania

This chapter investigated ethnic and national identity and well-being in terms of self-esteem in Roma adolescents across six European countries by testing potential hypothesized mean levels and associations

Multiple Social Identities in Relation to Self-Esteem of Adolescents in Post-communist Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Kosovo, and Romania

We test a model linking ethnic, familial, and religious identity to self-esteem among youth in Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Kosovo, and Romania. All countries are post-communist nations in Europe, offering novel and underexplored settings to study identity. Participants were 880 adolescents (mean age, 15.93 years; SD, 1.40) with Albanian (n = 209), Bulgarian (n = 146), Czech (n = 306), Kosovan (n = 116), and Romanian (n = 103) background who filled in an Ethnic Identity Scale (Dimitrova et al., 2016), familial and religious identity scales adapted from the Utrecht Management of Identity Commitment Scales [U-MICS; Crocetti et al. Child and Youth Care Forum, 40, 7–23 (2011); Crocetti et al. Assessment, 1, 2–16 (2015)], and the Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale [Rosenberg, Conceiving the self. Basic Books, New York (1979)]. A multigroup path model showed that ethnic, familial, and religious identities were significantly positively related to a single underlying construct of social identities. In all countries, youth with a stronger multiple identities reported higher self-esteem. These results are particularly valuable in addressing the scope of the proposed book by providing new knowledge on multiple social identities among under investigated samples from post-communist countries in Europe faced with dynamic societal changes. They also mirror increasing attention on multiple, inclusive, and intersectional identities as psychological assets for young generations

Understanding factors affecting well-being of marginalized populations in different cultural contexts: Ethnic and national identity of Roma minority youth in Europe

This chapter focuses on the intersection of the third, fourth and tenth Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), referring together to key pillars for improving social inclusion of vulnerable disadvantaged youth. Based on both Positive Youth Development approach and mutual intercultural relations perspective, it sets out to investigate developmental assets (such as ethnic and national identities), optimal outcomes (self-esteem), and their relations among Roma youth in six European countries (Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Kosovo, and Romania). Among these countries, the Czech Republic was initially recognized as the more favorable context facilitating potential alignment of Roma young people’s ecology with their identity resources, and therefore, promoting well-being. Results supported that in the Czech Republic youth experienced more stable integration of both Roma ethnic and national identities in terms of similar mean levels as well as positive associations of both identities with self-esteem. Results for the other countries were quite fragmented depending on the specific contextual conditions. The findings are discussed in light of the SDGs, the theoretical frameworks, research contexts and limitations, and implications

National collective identity in transitional societies: Salience and relations to life satisfaction for youth in South Africa, Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Kosovo and Romania

In this study we investigated the salience of the construct of national collective identity and its associations with life satisfaction among adolescents living in transitional societies characterised by relevant change in the last decades . Participants were 1 066 adolescents (M = 15 .35 years, SD = 1 .35) from South Africa (n = 186) and five Central Eastern European countries, including Albania (n = 209), Bulgaria (n = 146), Czech Republic (n = 306), Kosovo (n = 116), and Romania (n = 103) . They completed a questionnaire including national identity and life satisfaction scales . Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group structural equation modeling . Results showed that national identity of adolescents in transitional societies is multidimensional and pertains to different salient dimensions (i .e ., self-categorisation, evaluation, importance, attachment, and behavioural involvement) . Importantly, the findings provided evidence to suggest that higher levels of national collective identity are associated with increased levels of life satisfaction

Personal Life Satisfaction as a Measure of Societal Happiness is an Individualistic Presumption: Evidence from Fifty Countries

Numerous studies document that societal happiness is correlated with individualism, but the nature of this phenomenon remains understudied. In the current paper, we address this gap and test the reasoning that individualism correlates with societal happiness because the most common measure of societal happiness (i.e., country-level aggregates of personal life satisfaction) is individualism-themed. With the data collected from 13,009 participants across fifty countries, we compare associations of four types of happiness (out of which three are more collectivism-themed than personal life satisfaction) with two different measures of individualism. We replicated previous findings by demonstrating that societal happiness measured as country-level aggregate of personal life satisfaction is correlated with individualism. Importantly though, we also found that the country-level aggregates of the collectivism-themed measures of happiness do not tend to be significantly correlated with individualism. Implications for happiness studies and for policy makers are signaled