Culture Clash: An examination of the effects of acculturation on expressive suppression and depressive symptoms in Asian-American college students

Abstract

The varying ways in which culture affects mental health has been studied extensively for many years. Two of the most commonly used groups used for comparison in cross-cultural contexts are Western-Europeans and Asians. Expressive suppression, or the masking of experienced emotions, is one particularly significant indicator of the differences between the two types of cultures. Recent research has suggested that these differences are culturally bound. Acculturation is therefore a crucial measure when examining the different effects culture might have on mental health. The present study, then, sought to examine the crux of the intersection between expressive suppression, culture, and mental health in Asian-Americans; i.e., would expressive suppression be positively correlated with depressive symptoms in Asian-Americans with low levels of acculturation in the same way that they are predicted to among Asian-Americans with high levels of acculturation? Acculturation was tested as a moderator of the relationship between expressive suppression and depressive symptoms, but was not found to be significant in its effects on the relationship between expressive suppression and depressive symptoms. Interpretations and implications of these findings are discussed in detail.