Perceived discrimination can be harmful to migrant adolescents in China. However, little is known about the processes through which discrimination may be linked to decreased wellbeing in Chinese migrant adolescents. This study examined the relationship between perceived discrimination and three indices of psychological well-being (self-esteem, life satisfaction, collective self-esteem) in 798 Chinese migrant adolescents (49.4% from public schools). Group identity affirmation and belonging (GIAB) was examined as a protective factor that was expected to alleviate the negative effects of perceived discrimination on well-being, and the type of school was investigated as a potential moderator of the associations of interest. The results indicate that perceived discrimination was negatively linked to the three indices of psychological well-being and that the negative effects of perceived discrimination on psychological well-being were particularly salient for migrant adolescents attending public schools. Additionally, GIAB emerged as a protective buffer against perceived discrimination's negative effects on collective well-being. © 2016 Liu, Zhao. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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public school urban area China Chinese mental health human Social Identification Schools social aspects and related phenomena controlled study self esteem psychological well being Humans migrant psychology life satisfaction Adolescent male female self concept school Article migrant school collective self esteem group identity affirmation and belonging migration age Prejudice Transients and Migrants social discrimination Personal Satisfaction satisfaction social behavior Child