Perceived and Received Social Support in Two Cultures: Collectivism and Support among British and Spanish Students

Previous cross-cultural research into social support has attributed national variations in observed support to assumed cultural variables, but has rarely measured these variables directly. Furthermore, this cross-cultural work has failed to differentiate between support from friends and from families, and between global perceptions of available support and the support received after an event. In this study, 140 respondents from UK (N = 72) and Spain (N = 68) completed scales assessing cultural collectivism (Bierbrauer, Meyer, & Wolfradt, 1994), measures of perceived global support (Cohen & Hoberman, 1983), and received social support, as well as additional indices of self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965) and life satisfaction (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Path analytic analyses found that Spanish respondents were, as expected, more collectivist than their British counterparts, and that collectivism predicted reported family support after an event and global perceptions of available support. Global perceived support and support from friends after an event were significant correlates of self- esteem, which, along with global support and support from family members, was a significant correlate of life satisfaction. These findings underline the importance of analysing cultural values and the multiple components of social support when assessing the impact of culture on support.

[1]  H. Triandis.  Individualism and Collectivism , 2018 .

[2]  Jonathan E. Butner,et al.  Compliance with a Request in Two Cultures: The Differential Influence of Social Proof and Commitment/Consistency on Collectivists and Individualists , 1999 .

[3]  J. Coyne,et al.  Coping as a Communal Process , 1998 .

[4]  S. Duck,et al.  Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research and interventions. , 1998 .

[5]  Virginia S. Y. Kwan,et al.  Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: adding relationship harmony to self-esteem. , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  Nancy Dorr,et al.  Collective Self-Esteem as a Mediator of the Relationship between Allocentrism and Subjective Well-Being , 1997, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[7]  F.J.R. van de Vijver,et al.  Methods and Data Analysis for Cross-Cultural Research , 1997 .

[8]  Harry C. Triandis,et al.  Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method, and applications. , 1996 .

[9]  F. Norris,et al.  Received and perceived social support in times of stress: a test of the social support deterioration deterrence model. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  James Jaccard,et al.  The Relationship between Social Support and Life Satisfaction as a Function of Family Structure. , 1996 .

[11]  Ed Diener,et al.  Cross-Cultural Correlates of Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem , 1995 .

[12]  W J Brown,et al.  Culture, self, and collectivist communication: linking culture to individual behavior. , 1995, Human communication research.

[13]  M. Newcomb,et al.  Drug use and intimate relationships among women and men: separating specific from general effects in prospective data using structural equation models. , 1994, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[14]  I. Sarason,et al.  Social Support: Global and Relationship-Based Levels of Analysis , 1994 .

[15]  Karl G. Jöreskog,et al.  Lisrel 8: Structural Equation Modeling With the Simplis Command Language , 1993 .

[16]  B. Lakey,et al.  Cognitive processes in perceived social support. , 1990 .

[17]  Manuel Barrera,et al.  Distinctions between social support concepts, measures, and models , 1986 .

[18]  R. Larsen,et al.  The Satisfaction with Life Scale , 1985, Journal of personality assessment.

[19]  Joseph P. Stokes,et al.  Predicting satisfaction with social support from social network structure , 1983 .

[20]  Sheldon Cohen,et al.  Positive Events and Social Supports as Buffers of Life Change Stress , 1983 .

[21]  R. Turner.  Social support as a contingency in psychological well-being. , 1981 .

[22]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values , 1980 .

[23]  M. Rosenberg.  Society and the adolescent self-image , 1966 .

[24]  Regan A. R. Gurung,et al.  Close personal relationships and health outcomes: A key to the role of social support. , 1997 .

[25]  P. Feldman,et al.  Social Support and Pregnancy , 1996 .

[26]  Irwin G. Sarason,et al.  Handbook of social support and the family , 1996 .

[27]  M. Ramírez,et al.  La perspectiva psicosocial en la conceptualización del apoyo social Psychosocial perspective in conceptualizing social support , 1995 .

[28]  J. Olaizola,et al.  El apoyo social , 1995 .

[29]  G. Bierbrauer,et al.  Measurement of normative and evaluative aspects in individualistic and collectivistic orientations: The Cultural Orientation Scale (COS). , 1994 .

[30]  J. Sinha,et al.  Social support as a moderator of the relationship between allocentrism and psychological well-being. , 1994 .

[31]  M. Verkuyten,et al.  Ethnic Self-Identification and Psychological Well-Being among Minority Youth in the Netherlands , 1994 .

[32]  S. Schwartz.  Beyond individualism/collectivism: New cultural dimensions of values. , 1994 .

[33]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind , 1991 .

[34]  C. Dunkel-schetter,et al.  Differentiating the cognitive and behavioral aspects of social support , 1990 .

[35]  Irwin G. Sarason,et al.  Social support: An interactional view. , 1990 .

[36]  H. Triandis,et al.  Multimethod probes of individualism and collectivism. , 1990 .

[37]  S. Hobfoll.  The ecology of stress , 1988 .

[38]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[39]  V. Derlega,et al.  Friendship and Social Interaction , 1986 .

[40]  A. Baum,et al.  Social Support and Stress: The Buffering Effects of Friendship , 1986 .

[41]  H. Triandis,et al.  Individualism and Collectivism: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Self-ingroup Relationships We Wish to Thank Our Research Collaborators for Stimulating Ideas, Data, and Moral Support in Carrying out a Complex Set of Studies. They , 2022 .