Explaining elevated social anxiety among Asian Americans: emotional attunement and a cultural double bind.
Previous research has documented elevated levels of social anxiety in Asian American college students when compared with their European American peers. The authors hypothesized that higher symptoms among Asians could be explained by cultural differences in attunement to the emotional states of others. Socialization within interdependent cultures may cultivate concerns about accurately perceiving other's emotional responses, yet at the same time, norms governing emotional control may limit competencies in emotion recognition. A sample of 264 Asian American and European American college students completed measures of social anxiety, attunement concerns (shame socialization and loss of face), and attunement competencies (self-reported sensitivity and performance on emotion recognition tasks). Results confirmed that ethnic differences in social anxiety symptoms were mediated by differences in attunement concerns and competencies in emotion recognition. Asian American college students may find themselves in a double bind that leads to social unease because of a cultural emphasis on sensitivity to others' emotions in the midst of barriers to developing this attunement skill set.
Lau
Anna S
AS
Department of Psychology, University of California.
Fung
Joey
J
Department of Psychology, University of California.
Wang
Shu-Wen
SW
Department of Psychology, University of California.
Kang
Sun-Mee
SM
Department of Psychology, California State University.
D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D001213:Asian / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D004309:Double Bind Interaction; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D016487:Parenting / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D010379:Peer Group; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D012752:Shame; D012938:Social Perception; D012945:Social Values / Q000208:ethnology; D012951:Socialization; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult