title: Culture and affect: the factor structure of the affective style questionnaire and its relation with depression and anxiety among Japanese.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Affective styles are assumed to be one of the underlying processes of depression and anxiety maintenance. However, little is known about the effect of depression and anxiety and the cultural influence of the factor structure. Here, we examined the cross-cultural validity of the Affective Style Questionnaire and its incremental validity for the influence on depression and anxiety.
  
  
  METHODS
  Affective Style Questionnaire was translated into Japanese using standard back-translation procedure. Japanese university students (N = 1,041) served as participants. Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Rumination and Reflection Questionnaire, Brief COPE, Self-Construal Scale, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were administered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the Affective Style Questionnaire comprised four factors: Concealing, Adjusting, Holding and Tolerating (CFI = .92, TLI = .90, RMSEA = .07). The measure's convergent and discriminant validity was substantiated by its association with various emotion regulation measures. Regression analyses showed that negative influence of Adjusting, Holding, Reappraisal (β = -.17, -.19, -.30) and positive influence of Suppression (β = .23) were observed on depression. For anxiety, Adjusting and Reappraisal was negatively influenced (β = -.29, and -.18).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reliability and validity of the Affective Style Questionnaire was partly confirmed. Further study is needed to clarify the culturally dependent aspects of affective styles.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Research, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan. masayait@ncnp.go.jp.
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Stefan G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Hofmann
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires