Asian American-White American differences in expressions of social anxiety: A replication and extension.

Abstract

This study examined whether Asian American-White American differences on a trait measure of social anxiety extend to nonverbal behavior and to reports of anxiety-related emotions during a 3-min social performance task. Forty Asian Americans and 40 White Americans completed a trait measure of social anxiety and rated their emotions before, and immediately after, a social performance task. Their videotaped behavior was coded using microlevel behavioral codes (e.g., gaze avoidance, fidgeting). Results indicated that Asian Americans reported more anxiety than White Americans on the trait measure and on the emotion rating scales but that they did not differ substantially on microlevel behavioral indexes of social anxiety. Implications of ethnic variations in the patterns of anxious responding are discussed.

Racialized Assimilation of Asian Americans

“…For example, Kuo's (1984) classic study of the mental health of Asian Americans in Seattle found that Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Koreans had higher CES-D scores than whites in other studies. These findings have since been confirmed in a number of studies finding that Asian Americans display higher levels of depressive symptomatology than do whites (Brown et al 2007, Hurh & Kim 1988, Okazaki 1997, Ying 1988) and higher anxiety levels, particularly among college students (Okazaki 1997, Okazaki et al 2002, Sue & Zane 1985.…”

The Influence of Individual Factors on Cognitive Process Variables within a Diverse Group Context

“…First, we examined the relationship between individual factors and cognitive process variables using undergraduate students as little attention has been devoted to their experiences of cognitive processes (Goto & Takeuchi 2002;Greenland & Brown 1999), particularly in an Australian context. We substantiated the findings of previous studies mostly conducted in the United States that gender is a predictor of anxiety & apprehension (Tsui, Egan & O'Reilly 1992) and nationality is a predictor of bias (Ancis, Sedlacek & Mohr 2000;Kessler, Michelson & Williams 1999;Kohatsu et al 2000;Pham & Dykstra 1994), stereotyping (Pham & Dykstra 1994) and anxiety & apprehension (Lau et al 2009;Okazaki 1997;Okazaki et al 2002). However, we found that the relationships between gender and bias, and gender and stereotyping were not statistically significant.…”

“…Anxiety is found to be greater in intergroup than in interpersonal encounters (Gudykunst & Shapiro 1996). For instance, research has found ethnic differences in the experiences of anxiety, noting a greater level of social anxiety among Asian American students relative to European American students (Fritz, Chin & DeMarinis 2008;Lau et al 2009) or White American students (Okazaki 1997;Okazaki et al 2002). Similarly, Asians experience more anxiety than Hispanics when interacting with Caucasians (Stephan & Stephan 1989).…”

Happiness in modern society: Why intelligence and ethnic composition matter

“…There is some evidence that genes partially influence subjective well-being and may account for the national differences in happiness (De Neve et al, 2012;Proto & Oswald, 2014;Rice & Steele, 2004). For example, numerous studies show that Asians tend to have lower levels of life satisfaction than others, not only within the United States (Okazaki, 2000;Okazaki, Liu, Longworth, & Minn, 2002;Scollon, Diener, Oishi, & Biswas-Diener, 2004) but internationally as well (Diener, Diener, & Diener, 1995;Diener, Scollon, Oishi, Dzokoto, & Suh, 2000;Scollon et al, 2004). In one comparison of 55 nations on the average subjective well-being, relatively ethnically homogeneous Asian nations of China, South Korea, and Japan ranked 53rd, 48th, and 42nd, respectively, much lower than ethnically heterogeneous nations of the US (7th), United Kingdom (14th), and Brazil (17th) (Diener et al, 1995).…”