title: Relationship between bicultural identity and psychological well-being among American and Japanese older adults.
abstract: In a large national sample of American and Japanese older adults, this study investigated how bicultural identity affects perception of health and well-being in 11 individual psychological variables (i.e. positive well-being: self-esteem, optimism, subjective well-being Japanese equivalent, gratitude, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-positive adjectives, and satisfaction with life; negative well-being: depression, pessimism, social anxiety, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-negative adjectives, and perceived stress). This sample consisted of 1248 Americans from the Midlife in the United States survey, 2004-2006, and 380 Japanese from the Midlife in Japan survey in Tokyo, Japan, 2008-2010. Results showed that bicultural individuals (having both highly independent and interdependent self-construals) in both countries tend to exhibit higher scores across most perceived health and well-being measures when compared to other groups (i.e. marginal, interdependent, and independent). Cultural-specific aspects of self-construal, health, and well-being are explained to support the findings. Discussion of these findings and their implications is also provided.
authors.affiliation: National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan.
authors.forename: Ayano
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.affiliation: University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, USA.
authors.forename: Min-Sun
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Waseda University, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oshio
authors.affiliation: Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akutsu
keywords: bicultural identity; culture; health; psychological well-being; self-construal