State and trait anxiety: A cross-cultural comparison of Chinese and Caucasian students in Canada

Chinese people immigrating to North America are subject to specific Stressors in moving to a new country, and, furthermore, these factors interact with their cultural background to produce higher levels of anxiety than are commonly believed to exist. The present study compared the responses of 60 Chinese and 60 Caucasian Canadian students to questionnaires measuring multidimensional trait and state anxiety. As predicted, the Chinese students endorsed significantly higher levels of trait anxiety for ambiguous situations and daily routines than did the Caucasians. Moreover, they were also significantly more likely than the Caucasians to rate the research situation as being ambiguous and threatening. Of all the possible background variables tested, English fluency was the single most powerful covariate that was predictive of the results, with those students who indicated a lowered English proficiency tending to score higher across all four facets of trait anxiety. As the Chinese students were also significantly more likely than the Caucasians to indicate a lower level of English fluency, the present results are supportive of the likelihood that lack of familiarity with the adopted culture and language may contribute to adjustment difficulties in Chinese immigrants.