Who helps you? Self and other sources of support among youth in Japan and the USA

Japanese and U.S. sixth, eighth, and tenth graders ( N = 2141) responded to questionnaires asking whom they depended on in six contexts of need. These contexts were: morning awakening, physical illness, emotional upset, help with homework, causing a problem, and guidance in extracurricular activities. Findings indicated that, relative to culture, contextual effects exerted an equally if not more powerful effect on students' responses. In line with traditional cross-national theorizing, U.S. youth were, overall, more self-reliant than their Japanese peers. In contrast to such theorizing, U.S. students were more interdependent with family, and Japanese students were more interdependent with peers, than their counterparts in the other country. Furthermore, both Japanese and U.S. youth showed similar age-related decreases in interdependence with family and increases in interdependence with peers. Results are discussed in terms of active dyadic help-seeking versus conceptualized notions of social identity, and recent theories of development, culture, and the self.