Poster #104 - Coping Strategies in Response to Peer Victimization: Comparing Adolescents in the U.S. and Korea

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Although there is cultural variability in how individuals make sense of their social interactions, cross-cultural examination between Asian and Western cultures of youth’s coping responses to stressful situations and their relationship with internalizing problems is limited. Asian cultures tend to emphasize interdependence, while Western cultures focus on independence and self-efficacy. Depending on the culture, youth may be socialized to endorse one coping strategy over the other, and coping strategies may vary in their implications for adjustment. This study examined cultural specificity in how adolescents’ coping strategies in response to peer victimization were associated with internalizing problems.
The sample consisted of 754 adolescents in 7th-8th grades from the United States (n = 292, 60% female, 79.5% White, Mage = 13.6, SD = .65) and South Korea (n = 462, 50.2% female, Mage = 13.7, SD = .58). Participants read various scenarios describing victimization and rated how likely they would be to utilize certain coping strategies, including conflict resolution, social support seeking, cognitive distancing, and revenge-seeking. Participants also completed self-report measures of peer victimization, depression, social anxiety, and global self-worth.
The results of multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the coping strategies fit the data well and reached partial scalar invariance. Independent t-test revealed that U.S. adolescents reported internalizing problems, conflict resolution, cognitive distancing, and revenge-seeking strategies more than Korean adolescents, while Korean adolescents endorsed social support seeking more than U.S. adolescents. Findings of the multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that conflict resolution was positively associated with global self-worth in both countries; however, social support seeking was related to positive adjustment outcomes only for Korean youth (see Figure 1). There were gender differences in both U.S. and Korean youth. For U.S. boys, but not U.S. girls, revenge and social support seeking were positively related social anxiety. For Korean girls, but not Korean boys, revenge seeking was positively related to social anxiety.
Overall, findings suggest the importance of the fit with cultural norms; utilizing coping strategies that fit cultural norms were related to better adjustment outcomes for both groups. Clinicians and interventionists should be more sensitive to culture and gender variation when treating or creating interventions for targets of peer victimization.

Authors

• Joo Young Yang, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
  Presenting Author

• Kristina Lynne McDonald, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

• Sunmi Seo, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa