Ethnic Identity and Wellbeing: Implicit in-group identity and language dominance predicts Wellbeing in Emirati Women

dentifying the determinants of psychological wellbeing occupies a central, and important, place in psychological research. Over the past twenty years, a large body of work has accumulated articulating both the constituent elements of wellbeing and the factors that promote and maintain it. However, much of this research has focused attention on the broad factors contributing to wellbeing such as the respective roles played by autonomy, positive interpersonal relations, environmental mastery, self-acceptance and purpose in life (Ryff & Keyes, 1995; Seligman, 2000). One variable and its relationship with wellbeing that has attracted some attention, is the role of cultural identity. Early work on this domain suggested that the incidence of psychological distress was higher in ethnic groups in their adopted countries. For instance, Patel (1992) reported that young British Asian women living in the United Kingdom experienced more psychological difficulties than their white counterparts. Of particular interest was that such a finding appeared to be generation specific and that the findings did not extend to Asian women of grandmother status but who were also living in the United Kingdom (Quraishi & Evangeli, 2007). One broad avenue of interpretation suggests that these age differences are attributable to the concept of cultural identity with older individuals having a more established identity but younger individuals experiencing more flux in identity and perhaps more cultural conflicts as a result. Research has been however equivocal in respect of this issue with Quraishi & Evangeli (2007) reporting that cultural identity status appeared to have minimal overall impact on psychological wellbeing. However, the authors suggest that the relationship may be far less pronounced in non-clinical samples in contrast to clinical samples (i.e., those reporting distress or engaging in self-injury).