ETHNIC IDENTITY AND SELF-ESTEEM OF CHINESE MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: DOES UNIVERSITY SOCIAL CONTEXT MATTER?

Ethnic Chinese constitute a large, albeit minority, group in Malaysian society. Within this group, Chinese Malaysians come from a wide variety of linguistic, religious, and educational backgrounds. The overall purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the impact of university social context on ethnic identity and self-reported global self-esteem for Chinese Malaysian university students. To conduct this study, a total of 628 students were sampled from two universities and from different social backgrounds. Students answered a questionnaire about their ethnic identity, self-esteem, and demographic background. The relationship between ethnic identity and self-esteem was examined and the most significant predictors of ethnic identity for Chinese Malaysian university students were discovered. Analysis revealed that national context as well as childhood and adolescence, as opposed to university education or context, play a key role in student ethnic identity formation.