CULTURAL ORIENTATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING IN CHINESE-AMERICANS

Examined cultural orientation in the domains of language proficiency, cultural activity, and social relationship and its relationship with p sychological well-being in a group of 143 Chinese Americans in San Fra ncisco. Four indicators of psychological well-being were utilized, two assessing the experience of distress (depression level and negative a ffect) and two assessing positive well-being (positive affect and life satisfaction). Domain-specific cultural orientations were found to ho ld differential relationships with psychological well-being. For insta nce, bicultural activity orientation predicted the best psychological well-being (regardless as to how it was assessed), but socially separa tist individuals experienced less negative affect than assimilated and bicultural respondents. Findings were discussed in the context of the multicultural setting of San Francisco; It is suggested that future r esearch retain separate assessments of domain-specific cultural orient ation examine the contribution of the community's ethnic/cultural comp osition to ifs members' cultural orientations (i.e., address the role of person-environment fit) and study their impact on psychological wel l-being.