Identity as a Predictor of Subjective Assessment of Quality of Campus Life: Cross-Cultural Aspect

Abstract

The research featured predictors of subjective quality of students' life in the context of international student migration. The paper focuses on the ideological and ethnic components of social identity as a key predictor of the subjective quality of life in students of different ethnicities. The subjective quality of life was studied from the point of view of its motivational, emotional, and cognitive components. The research involved foreign students of Tomsk universities that came from various African or European countries, China, India, and Russia. The social identity was defined based on two questionnaires, namely The Types of Ethnic Identity by G. U. Soldatova and S. V. Ryzhova and The Scale of Ideological Ego Identity by J. R. Adams; components of the subjective quality of life – according to The Scale of Positive and Negative Affect by D. Watson et al., The Scale of Life Satisfaction by E. Diener et al., and The Values of Happiness by B. Ford et al. The authors managed to define the factor structure of social identity, which appeared to have both ethnically-specific and universal features. All cultural groups demonstrated certain factors of social identity that can act as key predictors of ideas about happiness, as well as about emotional (dominant affect) and cognitive (assessment of life satisfaction) components of the subjective quality of life. The results can help to set goals for psychological and educational support of foreign students.

Keywords

• educational migration
• multicultural educational environment
• students of cultural groups
• subjective quality of life
• social identity
• ethnic identity
• ideological identity
• predictors
• psychological and educational support