We studied collective identity and psychological well-being in Bulgarian
adolescents (305 mainstreamers, 278 Turkish-Bulgarians, and 183
Muslim-Bulgarians). Turkish-Bulgarian and Muslim-Bulgarian minorities
(ethnic Bulgarians converted to Islam during the Ottoman Empire) have
been subjected to severe assimilation policies until recently. A
multigroup confirmatory analysis showed that ethnic, religious, and
familial identities were significantly and positively related to a single
underlying factor we labeled collective identity. Bulgarian identity was
unrelated to collective identity in the Turkish-Bulgarian group. As
expected, mainstream adolescents showed a stronger Bulgarian and
weaker religious identity than Turkish-Bulgarian and Muslim-Bulgarian
adolescents. In all groups, individuals with a stronger collective identity
reported higher levels of well-being. We conclude that the concept of
collective identity is useful to link various identity components to wellbeing
of youth from different ethnic groups.