Dissertation
Biculturalism and Personality as Predictors of Subjective Well-being in Chinese Americans
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/3017
Abstract
This study was designed to determine how personality and biculturalism influence Chinese Americans' emotional well-being and life satisfaction. Few studies have integrated personality and bicultural identity in their research designs to explore mediational hypotheses.
Participants were 310 Chinese American adults from a land grant university in the state of Washington and across the nation via the internet who completed a demographic questionnaire, the Cross-Cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory-2 (CPAI-2; Cheung, Leung, Song, & Zhang, 2001a), the Bicultural Identity Integration Scale-Version 1 (BIIS-1; Benet-Martinez, 2003a), the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al., 1985), and the Positive Affect (10 items) and Negative Affect (10 items) scales of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule -Expanded Form (PANAS-X; Watson & Clark, 1994).
Results for Hypothesis 1 was partially supported and indicated that both cultural distance and conflict were negatively correlated with SWB as predicted. Cultural conflict, as compared to cultural distance, did not have a stronger relationship with SWB. In Hypothesis 2, only cultural distance added unique prediction of life satisfaction beyond the personality traits after controlling for age, gender, and generational status, and neither cultural conflict nor distance contributed unique prediction of positive or negative affect beyond the personality traits. Hypothesis 3 was not supported because BII-Conflict did not mediate the relationship between CPAI-2 Dependability and SWB in the factor or scale-level analyses. In Hypothesis 4, the extraversion-related scales of CPAI-2 Social Potency had both direct effects on SWB and indirect effects on SWB via BII-Distance. For Hypothesis 5, CPAI-2 Accommodation and the agreeableness-related scales had both direct and indirect effects, via BII-D, on SWB. Additionally, Hypothesis 6 was supported because the openness-related scales of Social Potency had only indirect effects on SWB via BII-Distance as a mediator. Finally, neither Hypotheses 7 nor 8 was supported. Interpretation and critique of the findings, applied and theoretical implications, and future directions are discussed.
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Details
- Title
- Biculturalism and Personality as Predictors of Subjective Well-being in Chinese Americans
- Creators
- Amy La
- Contributors
- Austin T. Church (Advisor)Laurie McCubbin (Committee Member)Stephanie Bauman (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Kinesiology and Educational Psychology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 121
- Identifiers
- 99900581458101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation