Optimism and Mental Health of Minority Students: Moderating Effects of Cultural Adaptability

Optimism, cultural adaptation, and mental health are distinct but associated concepts. An optimistic personality assists in maintaining mental health, and people with optimistic personality traits have better health than those with pessimistic personality traits. It has also been argued that (home or host) cultural factors influence the ability to adapt to individual social contexts and that interactions with individuals from different cultural backgrounds can help reduce social difficulties. Culture has a very important influence on the mental health of Tibetan college students, like other college students. This study aimed to investigate the initial mechanism of the potential influence of optimism on individuals’ mental health and cultural adaptability to/integration with mainstream culture. A total of 1027 Tibetan college students from four universities in western China were recruited for the study. The tools used included an instrument developed by the authors and used for the first time here to assess optimism, as well as the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and Positive Affect Scale (PAS). Optimism influenced mental health in the present study. The results were as follows: (1) cultural adaptability played a moderating role in the relationship between self-efficacy optimism and depression (β = 0.193, p < 0.01); (2) the moderating role of cultural adaptability in the relationship between optimism and positive emotions was not clear (p > 0.05); and (3) cultural adaptability moderated the relationship between self-efficacy optimism and life satisfaction (β = 0.286, p < 0.01). Thus, optimism and mental health are closely related, and cultural adaptability significantly affects the effect of self-efficacy in regulating depression and life satisfaction among Tibetan college students in China.