The Armenian Diaspora: Ethnicity and Psychological Wellbeing

For the past couple of decades, ethnic identity and psychological well-being have been the concern of many societies in the West as a result of perceived threats to the ethnicity and professed vulnerability of self-esteem among ethnic minority groups. The preservation of ethnic identity has also been an issue of vital importance for many psychologists and educators concerned with the psychological well- being of individuals. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between ethnic identity and psychological well-being in particular, self-esteem among fourth-generation Armenian high school students in Lebanon as measured by the English or Armenian translated Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). The study also assessed the dimensionality of two of the Armenian translated scales, the MEIM and the Self-Liking/Self-Competence Scale (SLCS). The entire sample consisted of 648 students and a sub sample consisted of 525 students who answered the questionnaires only in Armenian.