Abstract

Social support is associated with mental and physical health. It is important to consider culture in order to understand stress responses to everyday hassles and use of coping strategies. The current investigation hypothesized that (1) Ukrainian college students representative of a collectivistic culture would have lower levels of perceived stress than would US college students representative of a highly individualized culture, (2) Ukrainian college students would have evidence of greater social support compared to US college students, and (3) social support would mitigate differences in perceived stress between the two cultures. Based on 61 US participants recruited from Brigham Young University and 100 Ukrainian participants recruited from Sumy State University in Ukraine and using linear regression to predict college students perceived stress level from culture and MANOVA to investigate the differences in social support between two cultures, American and Ukrainian respondents scored similarly on measure of perceived stress. Moreover, American respondents reported using more social support for coping with stress than did Ukrainian respondents. These results challenge the hypothesis that collectivistic cultures use more coping strategies based on social support than do individualistic cultures and suggest that certain groups within an individualistic culture may cope with stress with social support.

Degree

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Psychology

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