A cross-cultural comparison of depressive symptom manifestation: China and the United States.
This study compared depressive symptomatology among Chinese psychiatric outpatients versus the general Chinese population, and across 3 cultural groups--Chinese, Chinese American, and Caucasian American students--by use of the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D; L. S. Radloff, 1977) and the Chinese Depression Scale (N. Lin, 1989), translated from the CES-D. Results indicate that Chinese patients (n = 112) endorsed a higher proportion of somatic symptoms than nonpatients (n = 112). The intercultural comparison found that Chinese students (n = 98) had the lowest levels of somatic depressive symptom endorsement compared to both U.S. groups (n = 198). These findings seem to suggest that the tendency toward somatic symptom reporting is not any greater among Chinese populations but may be a function of having a mental illness or of help seeking in China.
Yen
S
S
Department of Psychology, Duke University, USA. Shirley_Yen_PhD@Brown.edu
Robins
C J
CJ
Lin
N
N
D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology; D002681:China; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology