Ethnic education policy awareness and national community identity among ethnic minority college students in China: the dual mediating roles of policy fairness perception and ethnic identity.

INTRODUCTION

How ethnic education policy awareness relates to the sense of Chinese national community (SCNC)-reflecting ethnic minority individuals' psychological identification with China as a unified multiethnic polity-remains underexamined in Chinese higher education. Integrating policy feedback theory, social identity theory, and intergroup contact theory, this study examines the parallel mediating roles of policy fairness perception and ethnic identity, as well as the moderating role of interethnic contact depth.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 360 ethnic minority college students in China (68.3% female; aged 18 years and above, including adult learners; participants from the Miao, Tujia, Yi, Tibetan, and other ethnic groups). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with 5,000 bias-corrected bootstrap resamples and conditional process analysis.

RESULTS

Policy awareness had no significant direct association with SCNC, whereas two significant parallel indirect associations were identified. The indirect effect through policy fairness perception was 0.078 (95% CI [0.043, 0.202]), and the indirect effect through ethnic identity was 0.144 (95% CI [0.059, 0.288]); the two indirect effects did not differ significantly in magnitude. Although the interaction between ethnic identity and interethnic contact depth was negative at the path level, the index of moderated mediation was not statistically significant and should therefore be interpreted as exploratory. Gender and regional heterogeneity in pathway strength were also observed.

DISCUSSION: The findings suggest that ethnic education policy awareness is associated with SCNC primarily through fairness evaluations and ethnic identity rather than through a direct pathway. Policy communication transparency, ethnic cultural programming, and structured interethnic contact may represent complementary institutional approaches to cultivating national community identification. Longitudinal and experimental research is needed to establish temporal ordering and further examine the moderating role of interethnic contact.