Measurement Model for Students’ Ethnic Identity, National Identity, and Perception of Social Mobility in China: Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and construct validity of the Ethnic Identity, National Identity, and Perception of Social Mobility Scale in China. The data for this study were collected in 2014 and 2016, from one middle school in China. The school deployed a Chinese ethnic minority education policy, aimed at cultivating youth elites who uphold the Chinese government. The educational process involved significant interventions in the students’ identity building and their perception of social mobility. The total sample of 338 students was recruited in 2014 for exploratory factor analysis (EFA), while 609 students were recruited in the same school in 2016 for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). EFA was first used to devise an optimal structure. The results of EFAs supported a two-factor solution to ethnic identity: commitment and exploration; a three-factor solution for national identity: commitment, exploration, and behavioral involvement; and a three-factor solution for perception of social mobility: sense of being elite, perception of social status, and educational attainment. The second step was to confirm the structure, using CFA methods. CFA showed that the eight-factor model for Ethnic Identity, National Identity, and Perception of Social Mobility Scale provides a good fit for the data. These findings shed light on a combined way of approaching the relationship between identity building and social mobility within the educational sectors of a multi-ethnic society. Based on a Chinese context, this study offers a situated and contextualized quantitative approach to examining the Chinese state’s efforts toward identity building and promoting upward social mobility within the educational sector. Future research and the potential limitations of the study are discussed.