Coping styles and well-being in international students: The role of cultural factors
Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Despite a high prevalence of stress in the globalised world, our understanding of crosscultural differences in coping styles and their impact on well-being remains limited. Some researchers argue for universal effectiveness of specific coping styles, while others suggest that coping styles congruent with cultural factors are the most beneficial for well-being. This study investigated the effects of cultural orientations (individualism and collectivism) on coping styles and well-being of international students (N = 110) in Portugal using an online questionnaire. Our study aimed to compare the universal and culturally specific perspectives on coping in a collectivist context. According to the dominant literature, we expected collectivist participants to use more emotional and avoidant coping styles, and we expected these coping styles to be associated with negative well-being outcomes. We compared this prediction to the culturally specific perspective, which proposed that emotional and avoidant coping would be related to positive well-being outcomes, due to cultural congruence. We found a significant association between one cultural orientation (individualism) and coping styles, which partially corroborated the culture-specific perspective. However, we did not find conclusive support for cultural coping models, as emotional coping style was associated with negative well-being, despite cultural congruence, and the mediating role of culturally congruent coping styles in well-being was not supported. Our study highlighted the important role of culture in stress and coping, and we concluded that cross-cultural differences in coping are relatively well-supported, however more insight is needed into culture-specific outcomes of coping.
Source: Repositório do ISCTE-IUL
Author: Vojtova, Klara
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7018014006