Culture and Stress Coping: Cultural Variations in the Endorsement of Primary and Secondary Control Coping for Daily Stress Across European Canadians, East Asian Canadians, and the Japanese

Abstract

AbstractPeople's daily stress experiences differ across cultures. The current study examined how people cope with daily stress by applying primary and secondary control coping and how people change their strategies across situations (actual vs. ideal situations). European Canadians (n = 100), East Asian Canadians (n = 98), and the Japanese (n = 103) read 40 stress scenarios and judged their endorsement of stress coping strategies based on their actual primary and secondary control coping usage in the past, as well as their ideal preference of each coping strategy for each stress scenario. We examined whether primary versus secondary control coping usage differs across cultural groups. The results indicated the following. (a) European Canadians showed an overall usage for primary control coping over secondary control; however, there was no selection of primary control coping over secondary control coping for East Asian Canadians or the Japanese. (b) All cultural groups preferentially endorsed primary control coping over secondary control coping for their ideal preference of coping strategy. Nevertheless, the Japanese still showed more preference for endorsing secondary control coping as an ideal coping strategy compared to European Canadians. (c) There were mediational relationships between culture, independence, and the primary–secondary difference in control coping. (d) East Asian Canadians demonstrated a unique coping pattern, and we inferred that it reflected their multicultural identity. We discussed both academic and societal implications and assert that the present findings demonstrate significant relationships between people's culture and well‐being.