Is Perceived Emotional Support Beneficial? Well-Being and Health in Independent and Interdependent Cultures
Abstract
Previous studies show there is little or no association between perceived emotional support and well-being in European American culture. The authors hypothesized that this paradoxical absence of any benefit of perceived support is unique to cultural contexts that privilege independence rather than interdependence of the self. Study 1 tested college students and found, as predicted, that among Euro-Americans a positive effect of perceived emotional support on subjective well-being (positive affect) was weak and, moreover, it disappeared entirely once self-esteem was statistically controlled. In contrast, among Asians in Asia (Japanese and Filipinos) perceived emotional support positively predicted subjective well-being even after self-esteem was controlled. Study 2 extended Study 1 by testing both Japanese and American adults in midlife with respect to multiple indicators of well-being and physical health. Overall, the evidence underscores the central significance of culture as a moderator of the effectiveness of perceived emotional support.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A relatively less obvious but potentially powerful factor that could support a healthy lifestyle is the degree of fit or attunement between people and their cultural contexts.
“A less obvious but potentially powerful factor that could facilitate a healthy lifestyle is the relative degree of attunement or fit between people and their cultural contexts (De Leersnyder, Mesquita, Kim, Eom, & Choi, 2014; Oyserman, Fryberg, & Yoder, 2007; Uchida, Kitayama, Mesquita, Reyes & Morling, 2008).”
From Culture and Healthy Eating: The Role of Independence and Interdependence in the United States and Japan (2016) · cites this paper as Uchida, Kitayama, Mesquita, Reyes & Morling, 2008
Cites
Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change
Bandura, A. (1977) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191 · Cited by 43,925 · see citing works
The satisfaction with life scale
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 · Cited by 31,768 · see citing works
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037//0003-066x.55.1.68 · Cited by 27,815 · see citing works
Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.98.2.224 · Cited by 21,995 · see citing works
Self-citationStress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.310 · Cited by 18,093 · see citing works
SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2004) · Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers · doi:10.3758/bf03206553 · Cited by 17,383 · see citing works
Asymptotic Confidence Intervals for Indirect Effects in Structural Equation Models
Sobel, M. E. (1982) · Sociological Methodology · doi:10.2307/270723 · Cited by 12,810 · see citing works
The structure of psychological well-being revisited.
Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.69.4.719 · Cited by 10,285 · see citing works
Illusion and well‐being: A social psychological perspective on mental health
Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.103.2.193 · Cited by 7,814 · see citing works
Is there a universal need for positive self-regard?
Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R., Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1999) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.106.4.766 · Cited by 2,247 · cited 1× · see citing works
“As may be expected from their focus on personal, disjointed aspects of the self, Euro-Americans seek to confirm their internal attributes such as competence and personality as positive and desirable (Heine et al., 1999; Kitayama, Markus, Matsumoto, & Norasakkunkit, 1997).”
BackgroundSelf-citationMEASURING QUALITY OF LIFE: ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND SUBJECTIVE INDICATORS
Diener, E., & Suh, E. (1997) · Social Indicators Research · doi:10.1023/a:1006859511756 · Cited by 2,092 · see citing works
Cross-Cultural Correlates of Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem
Diener, E., & Diener, M. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.68.4.653 · Cited by 1,722 · see citing works
The sense of control as a moderator of social class differences in health and well-being.
Lachman, M. E., & Weaver, S. L. (1998) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.74.3.763 · Cited by 1,674 · see citing works
Age-related differences and change in positive and negative affect over 23 years.
Charles, S. T., Reynolds, C. A., & Gatz, M. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.1.136 · Cited by 1,049 · see citing works
Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: Adding relationship harmony to self-esteem.
Kwan, V. S. Y., Bond, M. H., & Singelis, T. M. (1997) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.73.5.1038 · Cited by 1,005 · cited 7× · see citing works
“Second, nearly all cross-cultural evidence is based on a narrow range of indicators of well-being and health, such as judgment of life satisfaction (Kang et al., 2003; Kwan et al., 1997) and happiness (Kitayama et al., 2000); furthermore, samples are almost always college students.”
BackgroundResultInfluentialKitayama, S., & Markus, H. R. (2000) · Culture and Subjective Well-Being · doi:10.7551/mitpress/2242.003.0010 · Cited by 504 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The impact of sociocultural contexts on mental health following sexual violence: a conceptual model.
Dworkin, E. R., & Weaver, T. L. (2021) · Psychology of Violence · doi:10.1037/vio0000350 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Levine, C. S., Miyamoto, Y., Markus, H. R., Rigotti, A., Boylan, J. M., Park, J., Kitayama, S., Karasawa, M., Kawakami, N., Coe, C. L., et al. (2016) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167216658645 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Self-citationSocial Support in Two Cultures: Everyday Transactions in the U.S. and Empathic Assurance in Japan
Morling, B., Uchida, Y., & Frentrup, S. (2015) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0127737 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Self-citationEffects of Self-Criticism and Its Relationship with Depression across Cultures
Yamaguchi, A., & Kim, M.-S. (2013) · International Journal of Psychological Studies · doi:10.5539/ijps.v5n1p1 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
- Authors
- Uchida, Y., Kitayama, S., Mesquita, B., Reyes, J. A. S., & Morling, B.
- Affiliations
- Kyoto University (JP)
- University of Michigan (US)
- KU Leuven (BE)
- De La Salle University (PH)
- University of Delaware (US)
- Corresponding author
- Uchida, Yukiko
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2008-03-14
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 741-754
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W2151467841
- Cited by
- 291
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 10.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Keywords
- perceived emotional support, subjective well-being, positive affect, self-esteem, cultural differences, Japanese, Filipinos, European Americans, physical health, middle-aged adults, culture as moderator
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Culture, Emotions, Female, Health Status, Helping Behavior, Humans, Japan, Male, Philippines, Surveys and Questionnaires, Self Concept, Social Perception, Social Support, Sociometric Techniques, United States, Beneficence, Friends, White People, Asian People
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
