Red culture immersion and psychological wellbeing among Chinese college students: the mediating role of collective self-esteem and the moderating role of psychological resilience
- 1School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, Jiangsu, China
Abstract
Introduction: Red culture, the cultural legacy forged by the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China during revolution, construction, and reform, is increasingly integrated into university education in China. However, the psychological mechanisms through which immersion in red culture contributes to college students’ psychological wellbeing remain largely unexplored. Drawing on social identity theory, the present study examined whether collective self-esteem mediates the relationship between red culture immersion and psychological wellbeing, and whether psychological resilience moderates these pathways.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 612 Chinese college students (46.2% male; M age = 19.92, SD = 1.31) recruited from two universities in Jiangsu Province, China. Participants completed validated measures of red culture immersion, collective self-esteem, psychological resilience, and psychological wellbeing. A moderated mediation model was tested using structural equation modeling with latent interaction terms and bias-corrected bootstrap analyses (5,000 resamples).
Results: Red culture immersion was positively associated with psychological wellbeing (β = 0.25, p < 0.001), and collective self-esteem partially mediated this relationship (indirect effect = 0.13, 95% CI [0.08, 0.18]). Psychological resilience moderated both the second stage of the mediation pathway and the direct pathway: the positive association between collective self-esteem and psychological wellbeing was stronger among students with high resilience (β = 0.43, p < 0.001) than among those with low resilience (β = 0.19, p < 0.001), and the direct effect of red culture immersion on psychological wellbeing was similarly amplified by resilience. The index of moderated mediation was significant (index = 0.10, 95% CI [0.05, 0.16]).
Discussion: Immersion in red culture is associated with college students’ psychological wellbeing partly through stronger collective self-esteem, and this beneficial process is particularly pronounced among psychologically resilient students. These findings extend social identity theory to the domain of red culture education and carry practical implications for integrating red culture resources into university mental health education.
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BibTeX
@article{wei2026culture,
title = {{Red culture immersion and psychological wellbeing among Chinese college students: the mediating role of collective self-esteem and the moderating role of psychological resilience}},
author = {Yuting Wei},
journal = {Frontiers in Psychology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1966132},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1966132},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Red culture immersion and psychological wellbeing among Chinese college students: the mediating role of collective self-esteem and the moderating role of psychological resilience
AU - Yuting Wei
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1966132
UR - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1966132
AB - Introduction: Red culture, the cultural legacy forged by the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China during revolution, construction, and reform, is increasingly integrated into university education in China. However, the psychological mechanisms through which immersion in red culture contributes to college students’ psychological wellbeing remain largely unexplored. Drawing on social identity theory, the present study examined whether collective self-esteem mediates the relationship between red culture immersion and psychological wellbeing, and whether psychological resilience moderates these pathways. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 612 Chinese college students (46.2% male; M age = 19.92, SD = 1.31) recruited from two universities in Jiangsu Province, China. Participants completed validated measures of red culture immersion, collective self-esteem, psychological resilience, and psychological wellbeing. A moderated mediation model was tested using structural equation modeling with latent interaction terms and bias-corrected bootstrap analyses (5,000 resamples). Results: Red culture immersion was positively associated with psychological wellbeing (β = 0.25, p < 0.001), and collective self-esteem partially mediated this relationship (indirect effect = 0.13, 95% CI [0.08, 0.18]). Psychological resilience moderated both the second stage of the mediation pathway and the direct pathway: the positive association between collective self-esteem and psychological wellbeing was stronger among students with high resilience (β = 0.43, p < 0.001) than among those with low resilience (β = 0.19, p < 0.001), and the direct effect of red culture immersion on psychological wellbeing was similarly amplified by resilience. The index of moderated mediation was significant (index = 0.10, 95% CI [0.05, 0.16]). Discussion: Immersion in red culture is associated with college students’ psychological wellbeing partly through stronger collective self-esteem, and this beneficial process is particularly pronounced among psychologically resilient students. These findings extend social identity theory to the domain of red culture education and carry practical implications for integrating red culture resources into university mental health education.
SN - 1664-1078
ER -