COPING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COLLEGE-WOMEN AND MEN IN CHINA AND THE UNITED-STATES

We examined and compared the direct and moderating effects of problem- focused and emotion-focused coping in male and female college students in the United States and the People's Republic of China. American stu dents reported more interference with academic activities as a result of stress; Chinese students reported more interference with personal d evelopment. American students reponed a greater occurrence of stressfu l life events and higher stressfulness of these events. American stude nts also reported less problem-focused coping than Chinese students. W e found little evidence for an additive effect of coping; moderating e ffects, both buffering and maladaptive, differed by gender and culture . Particularly for American students, interference was more directly r elated to stress levels in men, whereas coping exhibited more moderati ng effects in women. Contrary to predictions, only American women exhi bited a buffering effect for problem-focused coping, and no maladaptiv e effects of emotion-focused coping were found for any group. Chinese women, and to a lesser extent, Chinese men, exhibited a pattern of buf fering effects for emotion-focused coping and maladaptive moderating e ffects for problem-focused coping.