{"doi":"10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1346732","title":"Moral identity in relation to emotional well-being: a meta-analysis","abstract":"Introduction This meta-analytic review surveyed previous empirical studies that examined links between moral identity and indicators of emotional well-being. Additionally, this meta-analysis examined cultural origin as a moderator, testing if links between moral identity and emotional well-being differ in collectivistic vs. individualistic countries. Methods A systematic literature review was conducted through ProQuest’s 65 databases and PubMed. A random-effect meta-analysis and subgroup analyses were conducted using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 4.0 (CMA) software. Results Drawing on 27 eligible studies, moral identity was associated with greater emotional well-being ( r = 0.27, p < 0.001). Follow up analyses on individual dimensions showed medium effect sizes in links between moral identity and greater happiness or positive affect ( r = 0.28, p < 0.001), greater sense of purpose or meaning in life ( r = 0.29, p < 0.001), and higher self-esteem ( r = 0.25, p < 0.001). Moreover, moral identity was associated with greater life satisfaction showing a small effect size ( r = 0.15, p = 0.011). Results showed that effect sizes of links between moral identity and overall emotional well-being did not significantly differ by cultural origin. However, effect sizes tended to be larger in the nine studies that were conducted in collectivistic countries ( r = 0.30, p < 0.001) as compared to the 15 studies that were conducted in individualistic countries ( r = 0.27, p < 0.001). Discussion The results of this meta-analysis indicate a robust empirical relationship between moral identity and emotional well-being that is present across various dimensions of emotional well-being and in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Systematic review registration https://osf.io/94f8b/?view_only=6db54da0fa304c83993d0438ecb5c637","journal":"Frontiers in Psychology","year":2024,"id":426373,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":17,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8517,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1225272,"name":"Carlos N. Espinoza","orcid":"0000-0001-8151-3868","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1225273,"name":"Alecia Mercier","orcid":"0009-0008-2625-3782","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1225800,"name":"Emma K. Eason","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1225801,"name":"Charles W. Johnson","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":943298,"name":"Caroline G. Richter","orcid":"0000-0002-4810-1770","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1225271,"name":"Marlon Goering","orcid":"0000-0001-6708-6513","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":128,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:58:37.924718Z","pmid":"39118847","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}