Culture moderates the effect of social support across communication contexts in young adult women in the United States

Digital media is becoming integral to social communication, yet few studies have explored how documented cultural differences in social relationships transfer into digital contexts. The current study examined how cultural values moderate psychological and physiological responses to social support across media contexts among young-adult women from ethnically-diverse backgrounds. Method: Young adult (N = 103; Mage = 19.91, SD = 1.91) psychological and physiological stress response after face-to-face, computer-mediated, or no support conditions were examined among women from diverse cultural backgrounds (e.g., Asian American, African American, European American, Latino). Results: Participants who received computer-mediated (instant messenger) support before a stressful lab task reported less psychological stress afterward compared to those who did not receive support. Additionally, the effect of support context on physiological stress (change in cortisol, heart rate and systolic blood pressure) before and after the stress task was moderated by cultural differences. Conclusions: Independent, but not interdependent, self-construal moderates associations between support context and psychological or physiological measures. These results suggest that culture may influence how young adults benefit from social connection in new media contexts like on-line messaging.