Influences of personal standards and perceived parental expectations on worry for Asian American and White American college students

Abstract

The current study examined perceptions of living up to parental expectations (LPE) and personal standards as possible mediators of the relationship between ethnicity and worry in a sample of 836 Asian American and 856 White American college students. Asian Americans reported higher frequency of academic- and family-related worries, but they did not report higher levels of global tendency to worry. Perceptions of LPE of current academic performance and personal standards for preparation for a future career partially explained ethnic differences in frequency of academic worry. Personal standards and perceptions of LPE for respect for the family partially explained ethnic differences in frequency of family worry. The findings highlight the importance of targeting domain-specific personal standards and perceived parental expectations to reduce worry among Asian Americans.

Keywords:

• Asians
• racial and ethnic differences
• anxiety
• goal setting
• parental expectations
• college students

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Asian American Center on Disparities Research (National Institute of Mental Health grant: 1P50MH073511-01A2) and based on data collected for the doctoral dissertation of the first author.