Park Irene J K, Sulaiman Crystalia, Kim Su Yeong, Schwartz Seth J, Ham Lindsay S, Zamboanga Byron L
University of Notre Dame.
University of Texas at Austin.
Asian Am J Psychol. 2011 Mar;2(1):39-50. doi: 10.1037/a0023183.
Although past studies have revealed ethnic and cultural variations in social anxiety, little research addresses why these variations might arise. The present study addressed this gap by examining emotion regulation as an explanatory mechanism that may account for such differences. Drawing from a culture-specific (Kitayama, Karasawa, & Mesquita, 2004), as well as process-based (Gross, 1998) model of emotion regulation, we hypothesized that emotion suppression would mediate associations between self-construals (interdependent and independent) and social anxiety symptoms. The data analytic sample consisted of 784 self-identified Asian American college students from 20 colleges/universities in the United States. Participants completed the study measures via a confidential, online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses indicated a significant indirect effect of both types of self-construal on social anxiety through emotion suppression. Specifically, an interdependent self-construal was associated with more (whereas an independent self-construal was associated with less) emotion suppression, which in turn, was associated with higher levels of social anxiety. Clinically, these findings suggest that an individual's emotion regulation strategy could serve as a proximal target of intervention among Asian American young adults.
尽管过去的研究揭示了社交焦虑中的种族和文化差异，但很少有研究探讨这些差异产生的原因。本研究通过将情绪调节作为一种可能解释此类差异的机制来填补这一空白。借鉴特定文化（北山、唐泽和梅斯基塔，2004）以及基于过程（格罗斯，1998）的情绪调节模型，我们假设情绪抑制会介导自我建构（相互依存和独立）与社交焦虑症状之间的关联。数据分析样本包括来自美国20所学院/大学的784名自我认定的亚裔美国大学生。参与者通过保密的在线问卷完成研究测量。结构方程模型（SEM）分析表明，两种类型的自我建构都通过情绪抑制对社交焦虑产生显著的间接影响。具体而言，相互依存的自我建构与更多的（而独立的自我建构与更少的）情绪抑制相关，而情绪抑制又与更高水平的社交焦虑相关。在临床上，这些发现表明个体的情绪调节策略可能成为亚裔美国年轻人干预的近端目标。
