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Butting In vs. Being a Friend: Cultural Differences and Similarities in the Evaluation of Imposed Social Support

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 152; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00224545.2011.642025

1940-1183

Yulia E. Chentsova Dutton,

Community Health and Development

ABSTRACT ABSTRACT Imposed social support can be more harmful than helpful due to its potential to threaten the recipient's autonomy. These findings may reflect cultural contexts that foster autonomy (e.g., European American [EA]). Imposed social support may be interpreted more positively in cultural contexts that place emphasis on mutual responsibility for solving problems (e.g., Russian [RU]). We compared EA (n = 128) and RU (n = 125) young adults' reports of recent episodes of support. EAs were more likely than RUs to be satisfied with these interactions, a difference mediated by levels of nondirective support. Cultural differences emerged in interpretations of support. Unsolicited support from family was interpreted more positively by RUs than by EAs. Thus, although nondirective support contributed to support satisfaction across cultural groups, cultural context influenced young adults' interpretations of imposed support. Keywords: imposed supportinterpersonal motivesRussian culturesocial support Acknowledgments The author thanks Alua Satybaldina and Alexandra Vaughn for their assistance with the data collection, coding and processing; Eduard Kuznetsov, Larisa Popova, Marina Slautina, Polina Zaharova (Ural State University), Evgeny Cherny and Vladimir Kuvshinov (Taurida National University) and Larisa Krapivina (Ural State Pedagogical University) for their assistance with data collection; Marina Chentsova for her assistance with questionnaire translation and editing, as well as participant recruitment; Evgeny Chentsov and Grigory Beskin (Special Astrophysical Observatory of Russian Academy of Sciences) for their assistance with piloting the forms; and Len Horowitz for his helpful comments on study design. Notes 1. Simferopol is the capital of the Crimean Autonomous Republic, a predominantly Russian-speaking region of Ukraine. Participants in Simferopol responded to questionnaires in Russian. Their responses did not differ from those of Russian participants in Russia. 2. The only exception to this pattern was the finding that gender affected the way in which the relationship between cultural context and directive support affected perceived motives of family members to connect to participants. For EA women, higher levels of directive support were associated with lower perceived motive to connect. This relationship did not hold for any of the other groups.