A test of the personality-culture clash hypothesis among college students in an individualistic and collectivistic culture

Increased susceptibility to distress among young adults from diverse cultural backgrounds amplifies the importance of identifying culturally-salient factors related to the development of mental illness. To address this issue we investigated the relationship between culture (Thai and American), self-construal (independent and interdependent) and distress. As predicted, results revealed that Americans possess a more salient independent self-construal relative to Thais, whereas Thais construe a stronger interdependent self compared to Americans. Also, partially consistent with the personality-culture clash hypothesis, among Thais distress was negatively associated with interdependent self-construal and among Americans distress was unrelated to interdependent self-construal, whereas independent self-construal negatively predicted distress for both Thais and Americans. Implications for research investigating the relationship between multicultural variables and distress are addressed.