Search

This study examined the role of anger expression in the experience of stress, coping with stress and psychological and physical well-being. Based on a sample of 268 Singaporeans, the results, using structural equation modelling, indicated that anger expression was significantly related to reported stress, mechanisms for coping with stress and psychological wellbeing. Higher levels of anger expression were associated with higher levels of stress as well as lower use of active coping. Active coping was in turn positively related to psychological well-being. In addition, higher levels of anger expression showed a direct negative relationship with psychological well-being as did higher levels of stress. In contrast, the only significant predictor of physical well-being was reported stress, with higher levels of stress related to lower levels of physical well-being. The implications of these results for understanding the role of anger expression in psychological and physical wellbeing are discussed.

A group of 112 Chinese Singaporean undergraduates and 109 of their parents completed a questionnaire on disease perceptions, help-seeking behaviour, Chinese cultural values and personal background. Analysis of these data using structural equation modelling indicated that individuals high in Chinese cultural orientation were more likely to describe diseases using Chinese health concepts and less likely to describe diseases in terms of physical causality or chronicity. Illness concepts, in turn, related to illness behaviour in that participants making greater use of Chinese health concepts were significantly more likely to state that they would seek treatment from a sinseh (practitioner of Chinese medicine) and less likely to go to an allopathic physician whereas participants tending to describe diseases as physically caused indicated greater likelihood of seeking help from an allopathic physician. Also, cultural orientation was positively related to seeking help from a sinseh, independent of its relationship to illness concepts.