Collective and Individual Self-Esteem Mediate the Effect of Self-Construals on Subjective Well-Being of Undergraduate Students in China

Abstract

Human psychology and behavior are influenced by culture. Self-construals reflect the individualism-collectivism dimension at the level of individual personality. The current study aimed to explore how self-construals affect subjective well-being (SWB) in China, which has a collectivist culture. Chinese undergraduates (N=442) participated in this study. They responded to the self-construal scale, Rosenberg selfesteem scale, collective self-esteem scale and measures of SWB. The results suggested that the type of self-construal significantly predicted SWB. Moreover, an individual's self-esteem completely mediated the impact of independent self-construal on SWB, whereas interdependent self-construal influenced SWB directly, as well as indirectly though collective self-esteem. In addition, collective self-esteem promoted individual self-esteem, which in turn further stimulated SWB. These findings extend prior reports and shed light on how individual differences in self-construal affect SWB.

Relationship between bicultural identity and psychological well-being among American and Japanese older adults

“…This four-type self-construal model has since been used in a variety of contexts including conversational settings (Kim et al, 1996), dating relationships (Yum, 2004), socioemotional development among Vietnamese-American adolescents (Lam, 2006), and the impact of collective and individual self-esteem on subjective well-being among Chinese college students (Yu et al, 2014). These studies have indicated that possessing a bicultural identity influences individuals’ adjustment, cognition, and behaviors.…”

The Relationship Between Psychological Contract Breach and Employees’ Counterproductive Work Behaviors: The Mediating Effect of Organizational Cynicism and Work Alienation

“…To minimize the magnification of measurement error for latent variables, researchers have argued that item parcels should be created to act as indicators of variables with no sub-scales (Rogers and Schmitt, 2004). This can improve the reliability and normality of measurement (Yu et al, 2016). Therefore, two-item parcels were developed for PCB.…”

The mediating effect of neighbor relationship between community social support and elderly’s subjective well-being in China

“…However, other studies have confirmed that the quality of neighborhood relationship is unrelated to the SWB of the elderly (Greenfield and Reyes, 2014; Reyes, 2014). This controversy may be due to the social and cultural differences between China and Western countries (Ram, 2010; Steele and Lynch, 2013; Yu et al, 2016). In Western countries, individual factors, such as personal achievement, self-concept, and self-evaluation, are considered relevant aspects of SWB (Kitayama and Markus, 2000; Lu and Gilmour, 2004).…”