Social Anxiety and Assertiveness: The Role of Self-Beliefs in Asian Americans and European Americans

There is scholarly disagreement about whether Asian Americans are more socially anxious and less assertive than European Americans. We examined this question by exploring the interrelations among race/ethnicity, social anxiety, assertiveness, and self-beliefs related to mood regulation and sense of self. Participants were 72 Asian Americans and 63 European Americans who completed measures assessing negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE), self-construal, social anxiety, and assertiveness. Moderated regression analyses revealed that independent self-construal, a self-belief, predicted both social anxiety and assertiveness regardless of participant race/ethnicity. Also, less social anxiety predicted more assertiveness, regardless of one’s NMRE, also a self-belief. The most powerful predictors of assertiveness were social anxiety and self-construal. These findings suggest that when working with clients experiencing concerns about social anxiety or assertiveness, mental health counselors should explore their clients’ self-beliefs, regardless of whether clients are Asian American or European American.