Culture and coping strategies. Cross-cultural study

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Psychologia Spoleczna

Publication Date

2013

Keywords

stress, coping strategies, collectivism, individualism, SEM

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare cultures of various levels of individualism and collectivism with regard to preferred coping strategies. Hypotheses concerning cultural determinants of coping were tested, i.e. relations between values, self construals, self-esteem, and religiosity (explanatory variables), and engagement, collective and avoidance strategies (explained variables). Research was carried out in Norway, Poland, Belarus, and Russia (N = 759). The following instruments were employed: Schwartz and Bilsky’s Values Scale, Singelis’s Self-Construals Scale, and Cross-Cultural Coping Strategies by Kuo, Rosysicar and Newby-Clark. In order to be able to compare cultures, measurement invariance (configural, metric and scalar) was checked. Predicted relationships between variables were tested by means of SEM. Structural models (assessed in the overall sample and in country subgroups) achieved sufficient goodness of fit in Norwegian, Polish and Belarusian samples, with regard to the engagement (individualistic model) and collective strategies (collectvistic model), but not in the case of avoidance coping. Russian sample data were tested separately, since there was no equivalence of the Cross-Cultural Coping Strategies, and four models were revealed in this sample, instead of the expected three. Problems of universality and specificity of particular coping strategies were discussed, among other issues.

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