Examining emotion-focused coping among East Asians and European Americans: A cross-cultural comparison.

摘要

The purposes of this study were (a) to investigate culturally specific emotion-focused coping behaviors among East Asians by incorporating coping and emotion regulation research into cross-cultural evidence on emotion and (b) to examine cultural differences in emotion-focused coping as reflected in critical reappraisal, emotion moderation, and relational support. A convenience sample of 232 East Asian international college students and 216 European American college students participated in an online survey and completed the following self-administered questionnaires: demographics questionnaire, the Coping Orientation to Problem Experience (COPE) inventory, the Ambivalence over Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire (AEQ), the Perceived Emotional Support (PES) scale, and the East Asian Acculturation Measure (EAAM). A series of multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) and follow-up analyses of variances (ANOVAs) and discriminant function analyses (DFAs) were performed to test the study hypotheses. Unexpectedly, ethnic differences among East Asian international and European American college students did not emerge in emotion-focused coping as reflected in critical reappraisal, emotion moderation, and relational support. As anticipated, gender differences among East Asian male and female international students existed in emotion-focused coping behaviors. Also, differences in acculturation processes among East Asian international students emerged. Implications for clinical practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.