Impact of Taiwanese culture on beliefs about expressing anxiety and engaging in physical activity: a discursive analysis of the literature

Abstract

An awareness of cultural influences on beliefs about anxiety and physical activity is important when encouraging Taiwanese people with anxiety disorders to engage in physical activity. This awareness may help nurses understand better how their patients perceive anxiety and physical activity, leading to more appropriate physical activity programmes to improve both physical and psychological well-being.

Associations of Subjective Social Status with Physical Activity and Body Mass Index across Four Asian Countries

“…In order to develop and target campaign messages, social norms and values must be understood, yet there is little research regarding these in Asia. Only a few studies have qualitatively assessed such values [64, 65] and largely focused on general health values and competing priorities for time without consideration of the influence of perceptions of social class and norms. Leisure time and recreational activity are not the only solution—diet and other forms of physical activity are critical to also be addressed—but social norms and values around this domain are a piece of the complex solutions needed to combat the growing concern of obesity across Asia.…”

Evaluation of psychometric properties of the Chinese Mandarin version State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory Y form in Taiwanese outpatients with anxiety disorders

“…2005). Although the Taiwanese population has a similar cultural background rooted in Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, Taiwanese culture mainly influences beliefs about anxiety as a negative emotion linked with shame, which shifts expression of emotions to physical symptoms (Ma et al . 2010).…”

“…The higher anxiety levels in our sample might be explained by most participants having been diagnosed with anxiety disorders for more than 5 years and most reporting taking medicine to treat anxiety symptoms at the time of completing the survey. Such patients may have been encouraged by mental healthcare providers to express their emotions as one way to reduce anxiety symptoms (Russell & Potter 2002, Ma et al . 2008, 2010), which might have influenced their tendency to not suppress emotions like other Asians.…”

“…In Japanese culture, people tend to suppress emotion, especially positive emotion (Iwata et al 1998(Iwata et al , 2000, because of the influence of Confucianism (Mesquita & Walker 2003, Nomura et al 2005. Although the Taiwanese population has a similar cultural background rooted in Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, Taiwanese culture mainly influences beliefs about anxiety as a negative emotion linked with shame, which shifts expression of emotions to physical symptoms (Ma et al 2010). Furthermore, in a study of European American, Chinese and Japanese students (Leu et al 2010), only the Japanese reported more neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant emotions than European Americans in mixed positive and negative situations.…”

The Social Construction of Cancer Chemotherapy Toxicity

“…The medical and nursing articles and healthrelated popular texts were selected from the database of the ''Taiwan Periodical Literature System'' of the Taiwan National Central Library (in Chinese). The data analysis procedures followed the 6 steps reported by Ma et al 19 and included (1) selection of related texts using key words such as ''chemotherapy and toxicity'' or ''anticancer drug and toxicity,'' (2) selection of target articles and documents by scanning to identify the texts focusing on chemotherapy toxicity, (3) selection of meaningful information with social and cultural representations of chemotherapy toxicity through analyzing and comparing, (4) categorizing similar meanings based on cultural interpretations of chemotherapy toxicity, (5) grouping shared characteristics of categories through comparative analysis and naming themes for each categorized group, and (6) discussing the cultural meanings derived in disparity represented in social structures such as the healthcare system and professional status.…”