ArticlePloS one2021
Cultural differences in social support seeking: The mediating role of empathic concern.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Emotion regulation and mental health across cultures: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Nature human behaviour · 2025Pooled it
- Ontological coaching among nursing undergraduates: a pilot randomized controlled (OCEAN) trial.Medical education online · 2024Trial
- Working conditions and mental health of employees suffering from common mental disorders in Germany with special consideration to the migration generation.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Social Media Discourse on Breast Cancer Screening Barriers in Japanese and English: Cross-Sectional Infodemiology Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Do Females and Males Experience Occupational Stress Differently? Insights From a Meta-Analysis.Safety and health at work · 2026Review
- Unraveling the Dynamics of Adolescent Loneliness: A Longitudinal Study of its Reciprocal Links with Perceived Control and Emotional Intelligence.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2026Article
- Views on mental health recovery in primary and community mental healthcare services in Thailand: A qualitative study.PloS one · 2026Article
- The mediating role of motivation in the relationship between emotional intelligence and life satisfaction: an empirical study on teachers.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Empathy During Crises: Investigating Attitudes, Tolerance, and Ingroup-Outgroup Dynamics in Response to Refugee Movements.Journal of personality · 2025Article
- Loneliness in Older Adults Receiving Hemodialysis and Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study.The journal of nursing research : JNR · 2025Article
- CURRENT STATUS AND DETERMINANTS OF POSTOPERATIVE VISUAL FUNCTION-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH RETINAL DETACHMENT: A Multivariate Analysis.Retina (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2025Article
- Cultural differences in self-reported empathy in Indonesia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Enhancing Effect of eHealth Use on the Associations Between Social Supports and Well-Being in Japanese Employed Women Providing Childcare or Care: Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2025Article
- Perception of Empathy in Mental Health Care Through Voice-Based Conversational Agent Prototypes: Experimental Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- The impact of childhood trauma on meaning in life among middle school students: the chain-mediating roles of social support and core self-evaluations.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Fear of progression, coping strategies, and associated factors among a sample of Malaysian women with breast cancer.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Online Social Support Scale.Environmental and occupational health practice · 2025Article
- Improving postnatal social support using antenatal group-based psychoeducation: a cluster randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
- Trends in the Link Between Perceived Social Support and Life Satisfaction in Adolescents (2013/14-2021/22): A Cross-National Study.International journal of public health · 2024Article
- Cultural sustainability through social networks: a moderated mediation model exploring the psychological dimensions of cultural dissemination.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Prior research has found that East Asians are less willing than Westerners to seek social support in times of need. What factors account for this cultural difference? Whereas previous research has examined the mediating effect of relational concern, we predicted that empathic concern, which refers to feeling sympathy and concern for people in need and varies by individuals from different cultures, would promote support seeking. We tested the prediction in two studies. In Study 1, European Canadians reported higher empathic concern and a higher frequency of support seeking, compared to the Japanese participants. As predicted, cultural differences in social support seeking were influenced by empathic concern. In Study 2, both empathic concern and relational concern mediated cultural differences in support seeking. Japanese with lower empathic concern but higher relational concern were more reluctant than European Americans to seek social support during stressful times. Finally, loneliness, which was more prevalent among the Japanese than among the European Americans, was partially explained by social support seeking.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.