Intercultural Friendships, Social Identities and Psychological Well-Being of Ethnic Minorities in Different Contexts

ABSTRACT

The study focuses on the relationship between intercultural friendships, social identities, and well-being of ethnic Russians in three different contexts of the North and South Caucasus. We revealed the positive relations of intercultural friendships with the host society identity in all contexts and with the well-being of Russict ans in the culturally diverse contexts. Ethnic identity is positively related to the self-esteem of Russians in two more inclusive contexts, and, negatively associated with their life satisfaction in the least inclusive context. The ethnic and host society identities mediated the relationship between intercultural friendships and psychological well-being only in the most inclusive context.

KEYWORDS:

• Intercultural friendships
• social identities
• psychological well-being
• ethnic Russian minority
• North and South Caucasus

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Academic Excellence Project “5-100” [Basic Research Program at the National Research Un].

Notes on contributors

Victoria Galyapina

Victoria Galyapina - PhD, Leading Research Fellow, International Scientific-Educational Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). Professional interests: intercultural relations, values, social identity, norms, ethnic minority and majority, migrants. She is the author over 150 scientific publications on social and cross-cultural psychology. She is a member of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology

Nadezhda Lebedeva

Nadezhda Lebedeva is Professor in the Department of Psychology and Head of the International Laboratory for Socio-cultural Research at The National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. She is a member of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, and the International Academy for Intercultural Research. She is the author/editor of 27 books, and over 250 articles and book chapters on social and cross-cultural psychology. Her research interests are values, identity, intercultural relations, acculturation, creativity and innovations, social and cultural change.

Zarina Lepshokova

Zarina Lepshokova - PhD, Senior Research Fellow, International Scientific-Educational Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). She is a member of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. Her research interests are social identity, psychology of acculturation, psychological well-being, intercultural relations, the migrants. She is the author over 50 scientific publications on social and cross-cultural psychology.