Cultural diversity & ethnic minority psychology
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Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol · Jan 2009
Explaining elevated social anxiety among Asian Americans: emotional attunement and a cultural double bind.
Previous research has documented elevated levels of social anxiety in Asian American college students when compared with their European American peers. The authors hypothesized that higher symptoms among Asians could be explained by cultural differences in attunement to the emotional states of others. ⋯ Results confirmed that ethnic differences in social anxiety symptoms were mediated by differences in attunement concerns and competencies in emotion recognition. Asian American college students may find themselves in a double bind that leads to social unease because of a cultural emphasis on sensitivity to others' emotions in the midst of barriers to developing this attunement skill set.