The role of group memberships and school identification on student well-being

Abstract

There are widespread concerns about a decline in young people's mental health. One promising direction to address this issue involves group memberships and social identity processes. Despite progress, there are several issues in current theory and research including (1) whether the number of groups to which an individual belongs is related to more positive well-being, (2) better understanding the relationship between group memberships and social identification processes and (3) the need for more comprehensive longitudinal methods. The goal of this study was to address these issues using a three-wave longitudinal design (n = 1331) conducted with high-school students. Both the number and importance (an indicator of social identification) of student extracurricular activities (ECA) were assessed as predictors of six well-being outcomes. Importantly, we also assessed whether identification with the school as the context in which the ECAs were situated mediated this association. Results show that, generally, the number of group memberships had no direct effect on well-being, however, there was a consistent mediation via school identification. When considering number and importance of one model (comprising a subsample) importance emerged as the key predictor. Such findings advance understanding of the social identity and well-being relationship and have practical implications.