Coping differences between college women and men in China and the United States

We examined and compared the direct and moderating effects of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping in male and female college students in the United States and the People's Republic of China. American students reported more interference with academic activities as a result of stress; Chinese students reported more interference with personal development. American students reported a greater occurrence of stressful life events and higher stressfulness of these events. American students also reported less problem-focused coping than Chinese students. We found little evidence for an additive effect of coping; moderating effects, both buffering and maladaptive, differed by gender and culture. Particularly for American students, interference was more directly related to stress levels in men, whereas coping exhibited more moderating effects in women. Contrary to predictions, only American women exhibited a buffering effect for problem-focused coping, and no maladaptive effects of emotion-focused coping were found for any group. Chinese women, and to a lesser extent, Chinese men, exhibited a pattern of buffering effects for emotion-focused coping and maladaptive moderating effects for problem-focused coping.