Profiles of chemistry identity among Chinese high school students: antecedents and outcomes

Abstract

Chemistry identity is closely associated with students’ engagement in chemistry learning, academic performance, and chemistry-related career development. However, chemistry identity is not a unitary construct; rather, it comprises multiple dimensions, including interest, competence, performance, and recognition, and students may exhibit different configurations of these identity dimensions. To examine heterogeneity in high school students’ chemistry identity patterns, this study investigated 1,431 high school students and employed factor mixture modeling, grounded in the four-dimensional framework of science identity, to identify latent profiles of chemistry identity. In addition, the one-step approach and the BCH method were used to examine the relationships of antecedent and outcome variables with profile membership. The FMM results suggested three probabilistic profile patterns of chemistry identity: the academic competence–career alienation profile (37.6%), the robust identity profile (51.0%), and the interest–career driven profile (11.4%). These profiles should be interpreted as latent response patterns reflecting both overall level differences in chemistry identity and dimension-specific tendencies, rather than as sharply discrete student categories. Gender, perceived teacher support, and chemistry self-efficacy significantly predicted profile membership. Specifically, higher levels of teacher support were associated with a greater likelihood of membership in more adaptive chemistry identity profile patterns, whereas higher chemistry self-efficacy was more likely to predict membership in positive profiles such as the interest-career driven profile. In contrast, grade level, parental occupation, and class leadership role did not significantly predict profile membership. Further analyses revealed significant differences among the three profiles in chemistry academic achievement and chemistry university aspirations, with the interest-career driven profile showing the highest levels, followed by the robust identity profile, and the academic competence-career alienation profile showing the lowest levels. These findings indicate substantial heterogeneity in high school students’ chemistry identity and highlight perceived teacher support and chemistry self-efficacy as important variables associated with more adaptive chemistry identity profiles.