Cultural factors, depression, and somatic symptoms among Chinese Americans and European Americans

Abstract

Introduction Previous research suggests that people of Chinese descent may somatize psychological distress and depression. Cultural variations in depression among Chinese may be associated with differences in culturally relevant factors, such as self-construal, loss of face, emotion regulation, and acculturation. Objective The study examined how cultural factors associate with the report of depressive and somatic symptoms among Chinese American and European American college students. Methods Data were collected from 205 Chinese American and 316 European American colleges students using online questionnaires. Results Independent t -tests revealed no ethnic differences in depression scores between Chinese and European Americans. However, European Americans surprisingly reported more somatic symptoms than Chinese Americans. Post-hoc analyses revealed that this difference was largely due to the high report of somatic symptoms among European American females. When somatic symptoms and gender were controlled for, an ethnic difference in depression emerged with Chinese Americans reporting higher scores than European Americans. As hypothesized, this ethnic difference was not longer significant when the culturally relevant psychological variables were included in the regression. Conclusions This study did not find evidence for somatization among Chinese Americans and suggested that depression differences could be explained by examining culturally salient constructs. Clinical implications include the reduction of health disparities in accessing and receiving quality depression treatment and provision of culturally sensitive treatments for depression.