Cultural differences in psychological distress in Asian and Caucasian American college students: Examining the role of cognitive and affective concomitants

Previous research has indicated that cognitive and affective variables play an important role in psychological disturbance, However, the examination of such variables as predictors of distress across different cultural groups has been neglected. Accordingly, this study assessed the role of outcome expectancies and affectivity as concomitants of psychological distress in a sample of 92 Asian and 252 Caucasian American college students. Comparative results indicated significant differences on measures of pessimism, affectivity, and on different measures of psychological disturbance. Moreover, a model in which affectivity mediated the link between outcome expectancies and psychological disturbance was tested. Path analytic results indicated group differences in how outcome expectancies and affectivity were linked to psychological distress. Implications of the present findings for studying cultural differences in psychological disturbance are discussed.