Red Musical Identity and Subjective Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study of the Chain Mediating Roles of Awe and Prosocial Behavior

Yongcan He^1,2,3Shuo Wang^1,3Binyue Liu⁴Pingping Wang²Jimei Yang⁵Maoping Zheng^6*

• ¹Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education), southwest university,, Chongqing, China
• ²Faculty of Music and Dance, Zunyi Normal University, Zunyi, China
• ³School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
• ⁴School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, China
• ⁵School of Educational Sciences, Anshun University, Anshun, China
• ⁶School of Music, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

Objective: Red music, as a distinctive form of red culture in China, plays an important role in fostering national identity and promoting subjective well-being. However, empirical research regarding red musical identity remains scarce. This study addresses this gap through a longitudinal study, using three waves of data to explore the relationship and potential psychological mechanisms between red musical identity and subjective well-being. Method: The Red Musical Identity Scale, Dispositional Positive Emotion Scale (Awe subscale), Prosocial Tendencies Measure, and Subjective Happiness Scale were used for assessments. The participants were 586 college students from a university in western China, the majority of whom were female (77.2%). Results: The results showed that red musical identity at Time 1, awe at Time 2, prosocial behavior at Time 2, and subjective well-being at Time 3 were significantly correlated, and all were positively associated with subjective well-being at Time 3. However, the direct effect of red musical identity at Time 1 on prosocial behavior at Time 2 was not significant. After adjusting for age, sex, awe, and prosocial behavior at baseline, red musical identity at Time 1 positively predicted subjective well-being at Time 3. Furthermore, awe at Time 2 mediated the path from red musical identity at Time 1 to subjective well-being at Time 3. In addition, a sequential indirect pathway was supported: red musical identity at Time 1 showed indirect effects on subjective well-being at Time 3 successively via the awe at Time 2 and prosocial behavior at Time 2. Conclusion: These findings provide preliminary longitudinal evidence for the psychological mechanisms linking red musical identity and subjective well-being. However, given the single-site, predominantly female student sample, the conclusions should be viewed as tentative and are most applicable to similar university contexts.