Interaction Effects of Traditional Chinese culture and Ego Identity Exploration on Flourishing of Chinese Rural Children

Abstract Flourishing, which comprises positive emotions and functioning, is a new dimension of well-being. This study attempts to explore rural Chinese children’s flourishing by focusing on this new perspective. Moreover, this study aims to examine the potential factors that influence rural children’s flourishing. One is ego identity exploration, which is a required and essential process during the period in which children grow up. Culture is also an important determinant affecting children’s well-being and development. Therefore, this study aims to examine how ego identity exploration and traditional Chinese culture affect rural children’s flourishing from micro and macro perspectives. Herein, to achieve these objectives, this study collected 997 valid samples at the end of 2017 in Liaoning Province. The results show that left-behind status is a predicting factor affecting rural children’s flourishing in Mainland China, although the effect of left-behind status is weak. This study also finds that ego identity exploration and traditional Chinese culture have positive effects on rural children’s flourishing respectively, whereas their interaction effect has a negative effect on their flourishing. Regarding these findings, this study has discussed the potential reasons and provided some practical suggestions to foster rural adolescents’ flourishing.