National Identity and Public-Welfare Behavior Among Chinese Adolescents

Abstract: Introduction: Public-welfare behavior is a special prosocial behavior. Actively participating in public welfare activities has an important impact on the psychological development of adolescents. According to the group identity theory, national identity may be an important factor affecting public-welfare behavior, but its functional mechanism remains unclear. This study explored how national identity influenced adolescents’ public-welfare behavior through the mediating role of social responsibility and the moderating role of sex. Methods: We selected a total of 969 adolescents by cluster sampling to complete the questionnaires. We used the Hayes PROCESS macro for SPSS to test the mediating role of social responsibility and the moderating role of sex in the relationship between national identity and public-welfare behavior. Results: Results showed that social responsibility fully mediated the relationship between national identity and public-welfare behavior among adolescents. In addition, the mediating effect of social responsibility was moderated by sex, that is, the mediating effect of social responsibility was significant in male adolescents but not in female adolescents. Conclusion: National identity may affect the public-welfare behavior of adolescents by improving social responsibility, albeit significantly only in male adolescents. Our findings enrich existing research on adolescents’ public-welfare behavior and inspire the targeted promotion of public-welfare behavior among adolescents.