Perceived stress and health promoting behaviors: A preliminary study of cross-cultural comparison between American and Chinese college students

Stress and inability to cope with stress may pose a serious threat to health. Considering the fact that college students are facing many unique challenges at the transitional stage from adolescence to adulthood, numerous researchers have conducted study to examine the college students' perceived stress and its relationship with health. However, few studies have compared college students from different cultures. The purpose of this study was to explore if there are differences between Chinese and American college students in terms of their perceived stress and health promoting behaviors. A paper-pencil survey was administered among 319 American and 335 Chinese college students using College Stress Questionnaire. Results of a multivariate analysis revealed that Chinese students perceived lower stress when compared to American students. Female students perceived higher stress in relation to male students. Also, students who were in a relationship but not living together experienced the lowest perceived stress when compared to students who were not in a relationship and students who were in a relationship and living together. Regarding health promoting behaviors, there were no significant differences by participants' gender or relationship status. However, significant differences by participants' culture background were observed. Specifically, American college students were more likely to engage in health promoting behaviors than Chinese college students.