Culture‐specific personality correlates of anxiety among Chinese and Caucasian college students

The present study investigated the relationship between a set of personality constructs (i.e. perfectionism, independent‐interdependent self‐construal, and collective self‐esteem) and trait and social anxiety among 324 Mainland Chinese and 333 Caucasian college students. It was hypothesized that the strength of the correlation between these personality factors and anxiety would be different for the two samples. The results indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism was a better predictor of social anxiety for the Chinese participants, but of trait anxiety for the Caucasian participants. Independent self‐construal predicted social anxiety better for the Caucasians than for the Chinese. Overall, aspects of collective self‐esteem were more correlated with anxiety among the Chinese than the Caucasians. The authors argued that the findings can be used to improve multicultural counselling in China and the USA and to provide more culturally specific interventions to clients having anxiety disorders.