Connection or Independence: Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Adolescents’ Coping With Peer Victimization Using Mixed Methods

This study investigates differences and similarities in coping responses to peer victimization and the way culture is reflected in the social cognitions adolescents used in choosing their coping responses through a mixed-method design with 731 Taiwanese and 470 U.S. adolescents. Adolescents provided coping responses to peer victimization via both hypothetical situations and within structured open-ended questions. Two culturally distinctive psychological frameworks, seeking connection in Taiwan and showing independence in the United States, were reflected in both the coping responses that adolescents endorsed (i.e., more seeking adults’ support in Taiwan and more problem-solving coping in the United States) and the social cognitions used in the coping process (e.g., connection seeking in Taiwan and self-independence demonstration in the United States). Taiwan and U.S. adolescents also differ in the prevalence of coping strategies in the real-life peer victimization descriptions in a way that was comparable with our quantitative findings (i.e., more seeking friends and adults’ support in Taiwan and more solving the problem on one’s own in the United States).