Examining Cultural Differences in How Loneliness is Associated with Psychological Ill-Being Through Social Problem Solving: Does How You Perceive Problems Matter More Than How You Tackle Them?

Purpose: This study examined social problem solving as a hypothesized mediator of the association between loneliness and psychological ill-being (viz., depressive symptoms & hopelessness) in American and Chinese adults. Methods: A total of 320 (229 female & 91 male) American adults and 357 (194 male & 163 female) Chinese adults participated in the present study. Results: Mediation testing for social problem solving as a hypothesized mechanism accounting for the positive association between loneliness and psychological ill-being identified differences between Americans and Chinese. For Americans, the presence of a negative problem orientation was consistently found to partially mediate the association between loneliness and psychological ill-being. In contrast, for Chinese, the absence of a positive problem orientation was consistently found to partially mediate the association between loneliness and psychological ill-being. For both groups, no evidence was found for the importance of any of the problem-solving styles in accounting for psychological ill-being. Conclusion: These findings not only indicate that how adults perceive problems matters more than how they approach solving them, but also point to important cultural differences regarding which problem orientation is most involved for understanding the positive association between loneliness and psychological ill-being in Easterners, compared to Westerners.