Somatic complaint differences between Turkish immigrants and Belgians: do all roads lead to Rome?

Abstract

Objective. Turkish immigrants have been found to report more somatic complaints compared to western majority groups. The present study investigates the combination of two cultural explanations (somatization versus psychologization and emotion mediation) with two acculturative explanations (acculturative stress versus acculturative transition) to explain these differences. Design. In total, 144 Turkish immigrants, 353 Belgian majority members, and 222 Turkish majority members were asked to report the last three emotional episodes they encountered and to rate them on 24 emotion terms and 17 somatic sensations. Results. Turkish majorities scored higher on all somatic factors, anxiety–sadness, and self-conscious emotions followed by Turkish immigrants and Belgian majorities. Furthermore, path analysis showed (partial) mediation effects of anxiety–sadness and self-conscious factors on the differences in the somatic factors between Belgian and Turkish majorities. Conclusion. These results indicate that the somatic differences do not result from a trade-off between somatization and psychologization, but that emotions mediate differences in somatic processes to a large extent. It was also found that differences between Turkish immigrants and Belgian majority members are to be attributed to acculturative transition, rather than to acculturative stress.