title: Extending a structural model of somatization to South Koreans: Cultural values, somatization tendency, and the presentation of depressive symptoms.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Somatization refers to the tendency to emphasize somatic symptoms when experiencing a psychiatric disturbance. This tendency has been widely reported in patients from East Asian cultural contexts suffering from depression. Recent research in two Chinese samples have demonstrated that the local cultural script for depression, involving two aspects-the experience and expression of distress (EED) and conceptualization and communication of distress (CCD)-can be evoked to help explain somatization. Given the beliefs and practices broadly shared across Chinese and South Korean cultural contexts, the current study seeks to replicate this explanatory model in South Koreans.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our sample included 209 psychiatric outpatients from Seoul and Wonju, South Korea. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess somatization tendency, adherence to traditional values, and psychological and somatic symptoms of depression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results from SEM showed that the EED and CCD factors of somatization tendency were differently associated with cultural values and somatic symptoms, replicating our previous findings in Chinese outpatients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The reliance on a brief self-report measure of somatization tendency, not originally designed to assess separate EED and CCD factors, highlights the need for measurement tools for the assessment of cultural scripts in cross-cultural depression research.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The replication of the Chinese structural model of somatization in South Korea lends empirical support to the view that somatization can be understood as the consequence of specific cultural scripts. These scripts involve the experience and expression of distress as well as culturally meaningful ways in which this distress is conceptualized and communicated to others.
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, Education College, Shanghai Normal University, 100 Guilin Rd., Shanghai 200234, China. Electronic address: zhouziaolu@shnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaolu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University Wonju School of Medicine, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seongho
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Min
authors.affiliation: Concordia University, Canada.
authors.forename: Jiahong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University College of Medicine, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Se Joo
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University Wonju School of Medicine, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Joung-Sook
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.affiliation: Hunan Normal University, China.
authors.forename: Yunshi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and University of Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Noh
authors.affiliation: Concordia University and Jewish General Hospital, Canada. Electronic address: andrew.ryder@concordia.ca.
authors.forename: Andrew G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Ryder
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D003469:Culture; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology; D056910:Republic of Korea; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D063189:Symptom Assessment; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Culture; Depression; Korea; Somatization