Cultural differences and social support seeking on Facebook

Abstract

Research on social support has uncovered cultural differences in social support seeking between Asian and American groups (Taylor et al., 2004). However, direct links to underlying assumptions of independent and interdependent self-construal have not been made. This paper will extend previous findings on culture and social support by expanding on the relatively unexplored constructs of implicit and explicit social support seeking (Taylor, Welch, Kim, & Sherman, 2007), and by exploring the relationships between self-construal and social support seeking patterns on an online social networking site, Facebook. Using a sample of undergraduates from Singapore (N = 41), this study found a

marginally significant positive relationship between independent self-construal and explicit social support seeking on Facebook. No relationships were found for independent self-construal and implicit social support seeking, interdependent self-construal and both explicit and implicit social support seeking on Facebook. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed, along with explanations for non-significant findings. This research highlights the importance of taking culture into consideration for future research on social support seeking and user behaviour on social networking sites.

Keywords: culture, self-construal, social support seeking, Facebook