Kim, Sungmin (2016) The Main and Stress-Buffer Effect of Seeking Social Support on Stress Outcome across Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures: Australia and China. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The negative impact of occupational stress has been well documented in previous research. Accordingly, organisations’ effort to reduce work-related stress has increased. It is widely agreed that social support is one of the best ways to cope with stress. The stress-buffer and main effect model explains how social support impacts on stress experience. However, past social support research was mainly interested in the impact of perceived and received social support, whereas seeking social support was relatively neglected. Recent literature on seeking social support documented that culture exerts a big influence on how individuals view seeking social support behaviour. Individualistic cultures were more open to seeking social support, while collectivistic cultures were not. The present study aimed to examine the impact of seeking social support in Australian and Chinese samples which are representatives of individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Based on past cross-cultural research findings, it was hypothesised that seeking social support could be represented by the stress-buffer and main effect models in the Australian sample but not in the Chinese sample. Using a series of hierarchical regressions and mediation testings, this study showed that both countries significantly supported only the main effect model, and seeking social support significantly increased stress experience. Furthermore, seeking social support as a coping behaviour did not require the presence of stressful encounter as a precursor. Since previous research on perceived and received social support consistently reported their stress-reducing impact, this study indicated that the stress inducing seeking social support was fundamentally different which warrant a new categorisation of social support concepts; “Passive Social Support” and “Active Social Support.” Future research was recommended and seeking social support’s implications on future training and management initiatives were discussed.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Yong Wah Goh |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Aug 2025 04:21 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Aug 2025 04:24 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | stress and coping ; seeking social support ; stress buffer effect ; main effect ; culture |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52470 |
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