A quantitative and qualitative approach to social relationships and well-being in the United States and Japan

It is well established that social relationships influence individuals' psychological wellbeing by providing love, intimacy, reassurance of worth, tangible assistance, and guidance (e.g., Rowe Kahn, 1998; Sarason et al., 1990). Across the life span.. lacking high quality relationships is associated with negative physical and psychological consequences such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, and poor health (Cohen Syme. 1985; Duck. 1983; Rowe & Kahn, 1998). Despite this evidence that social relationships are importantly related to wellbeing, comparative, cross-cultural work is rare; most of the research in this field has been conducted on White, middle-class Americans, making it ill-advised to generalize findings beyond this population (see Adams, 1989; Adams & Blieszner. 1994). What individuals think, value, and do in relationships is influenced by the cultural contexts in which the-se relationships are embedded. The present study compares associations between social relationships and well-being in the United States and Japan.