Cultural differences in the impact of social support on psychological and biological stress responses

Shelley E. Taylor; William T. Welch; Heejung S. Kim; David K. Sherman

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01987.x

Cultural differences in the impact of social support on psychological and biological stress responses

Shelley E. Taylor, William T. Welch, Heejung S. Kim, David K. Sherman

Department of Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

302 Scopus citations

Abstract

Social support is believed to be a universally valuable resource for combating stress, yet Asians and Asian Americans report that social support is not helpful to them, resist seeking it, and are underrepresented among recipients of supportive services. We distinguish between explicit social support (seeking and using advice and emotional solace) and implicit social support (focusing on valued social groups) and show that Asians and Asian Americans are psychologically and biologically benefited more by implicit social support than by explicit social support; the reverse is true for European Americans. Our discussion focuses on cultural differences in the construal of relationships and their implications for social support and delivery of support services.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	831-837
Number of pages	7
Journal	Psychological Science
Volume	18
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01987.x
State	Published - Sep 2007

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant BCS-0338631. We are grateful to Bimal Rajkomar for conducting the pilot research that led to this investigation and to Sasha Kimel for helping to run the study.

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abstract = "Social support is believed to be a universally valuable resource for combating stress, yet Asians and Asian Americans report that social support is not helpful to them, resist seeking it, and are underrepresented among recipients of supportive services. We distinguish between explicit social support (seeking and using advice and emotional solace) and implicit social support (focusing on valued social groups) and show that Asians and Asian Americans are psychologically and biologically benefited more by implicit social support than by explicit social support; the reverse is true for European Americans. Our discussion focuses on cultural differences in the construal of relationships and their implications for social support and delivery of support services.",

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AU - Sherman, David K.

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Cultural differences in the impact of social support on psychological and biological stress responses

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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