Cultural values predict coping using culture as an individual difference variable in multi-cultural samples.

Abstract

Three studies establish the relations between cultural values and coping using multicultural samples of international students. Study 1 established the cross-cultural measurement invariance of subscales of the Cope inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) used in the paper. The cultural value dimensions of embeddedness vs. autonomy and hierarchy vs. egalitarianism predicted how international students from 28 (Study 2) and 38 (Study 3) countries coped with adapting to living in a new country. Cultural values predicted coping by religion, and this relation was only partly mediated by personally valuing tradition, cultural norms, and perceived difficulty of adapting. Cultural values predicted emotion-focused/avoidant coping beyond neuroticism, and seeking social support beyond extraversion. Mediators to the relations between cultural values and these coping strategies were also found. The results demonstrate the power of cultural values to predict coping, and bring to the forefront the use of multicultural samples as an important method in cross-cultural research.