Integrating Personality and Coping Styles in Predicting Well-Being Across Cultures

Diem Thi Phan

This study investigated an integrated model of personality and coping styles in predicting well-being among Asian and European Americans. Participants were 297 European American and 210 Asian American college-aged students and community members. Participants completed the Big Five Inventory (BFI; Benet-Martinez & John, 1998), Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE; Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scales (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), and Social Well-Being Scale (SWBS; Keyes, 1998). The Asian American participants also completed the Asian American Multidimensional Acculturation Scale (AAMAS; Chung, Kim, & Abreu, 2004). Hypothesis 1 was largely supported, demonstrating the complex relationships among personality, coping, and well-being. The fit of the overall integrated structural model was fair. The majority of the hypothesized paths were statistically significant for both samples. Hypothesis 2 was not supported. The path coefficient relating emotion-focused coping to subjective well-being was not more negative for Asian Americans than for European Americans. Hypothesis 3 was not supported. The path coefficient relating problem-focused coping and subjective well-being was not significantly more positive for European Americans than Asian Americans. Hypothesis 4 was partially supported. As predicted, European Americans reported greater Extraversion than Asian Americans. There were no ethnic differences in the other personality traits. Hypothesis 5 was partially supported. As predicted, Asian Americans reported using more emotion-focused coping strategies, but there were no ethnic differences in problem-focused or disengagement coping styles. Hypotheses 6 and 7 were not supported because there were no ethnic differences in subjective or social well-being. Hypothesis 8 was partially supported. As hypothesized, higher acculturation was associated with greater subjective well-being. However, higher acculturation was not associated with lower social well-being. Hypothesis 9 was partially supported. As expected, level of enculturation was positively associated with greater social well-being. However, level of enculturation was not negatively associated with subjective well-being. Interpretation of the findings, implications, and future directions for research are discussed. Overall, the study demonstrated the importance of integrating personality traits and coping styles in understanding the subjective and social well-being of Asian and European Americans.

Integrating Personality and Coping Styles in Predicting Well-Being Across Cultures

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