Students' stress in China, Japan and Korea: a transcultural study

In this transcultural comparison of stress among Chinese, Japanese and Korean students, the authors examined stressors with the Stress Questionnaire Form for College Students, strategies for coping with Ways of Coping-Revised, and physical reactions to the stressors with the Physical Symptom Scale of Stress. Compared to the Japanese and Korean students, Chinese students had a multitude of stressors and experienced the highest level of stress. In coping with stressful events, Koreans were the most active, Chinese the least active and Japanese were intermediately active. Physical symptoms were found to be most serious in Koreans and less serious in Chinese and Japanese. Coping techniques seemed unrelated to alleviating physical symptoms in Koreans but mildly related in Chinese and Japanese.