title: Finding benefits from acculturative stress among Asian Americans: Self-reflection moderating the mediating effects of ethnocultural empathy on positive outcomes.
abstract: This study examined a moderated mediation model to see whether self-reflection moderated (a) the association between acculturative stress and ethnocultural empathy and (b) the indirect effects of acculturative stress on 2 positive outcomes (i.e., bicultural competence and making positive sense of adversity) through ethnocultural empathy. A total of 330 Asian American college students from a West coast university participated in an online survey. Results from PROCESS supported hypotheses. First, self-reflection significantly moderated the effects of acculturative stress on ethnocultural empathy. Specifically, the effect of acculturative stress on ethnocultural empathy was significantly positive for those with lower self-reflection. Conversely, this effect was not significant for those with higher self-reflection, but ethnocultural empathy was consistently high across all levels of acculturative stress for those with higher self-reflection. Post hoc exploratory analyses examined the moderated mediation model using each of the 5 domains of acculturative stress as predictors; results supported the moderated mediation hypotheses for 2 domains, discrimination and cultural isolation. Second, self-reflection significantly moderated the indirect effects of acculturative stress on 2 positive outcomes through ethnocultural empathy. Results from conditional indirect effects suggested that the indirect effects of acculturative stress on 2 positive outcomes through ethnocultural empathy were significantly positive for those with lower self-reflection. Conversely, the indirect effects were not significant for those with higher self-reflection, but the 2 positive outcomes stayed high at all levels of acculturative stress. Post hoc analyses found that 5 of 6 components of bicultural competence used as outcome variables supported the moderation mediation hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.
authors.forename: Meifen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Counseling & Behavioral Health Services, Hawai'i Pacific University.
authors.forename: Chun-I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, University of Maryland.
authors.forename: Cixin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.
authors.forename: Stacy Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Ko
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology*; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult