Abstract
PurposeResearch in depression has revealed differences in the way depressed individuals across cultures report their symptoms. This literature also points to possible differences in symptom reporting patterns between men and women. Using data from a larger dataset (Beshai et al. 2016), the current study examined whether non-depressed and depressed Egyptian and Canadian men and women differed in their self-report of the various domains of the Beck Depression Inventory –II (BDI-II).MethodWe recruited a total of 131 depressed and non-depressed participants from both Egypt (n = 29 depressed; n = 29 non-depressed) and Canada (n = 35 depressed; n = 38 non-depressed). Depression status was ascertained using a structured interview. All participants were asked to complete the BDI-II along with other self-report measures of depression. BDI-II items were divided into two subscales in accordance with Dozois, Dobson & Ahnberg (1998) factor analysis: cognitive-affective and somatic-vegetative subscales.ResultsWe found a significant three-way interaction effect on the cognitive-affective (F(1,121) = 9.51, p = .003) and main effect of depression status on somatic-vegetative subscales (F(1,121) = 42.80, p < .001). Post hoc analyses revealed that depressed Egyptian men reported lower scores on the cognitive-affective subscale of the BDI-II compared to their depressed Canadian male counterparts.ConclusionsThese results suggest that males across cultures may differentially report cognitive symptoms of depression. These results also suggest that clinicians and clinical scientists need to further examine the interaction effect of culture and gender when investigating self-reported symptoms of depression.
Highlights
Cross-cultural epidemiological data indicate that depression is prevalent in almost all regions of the world (Kessler & Bromet, 2013)
Non-depressed Egyptian participants were recruited from the community at large, whereas non-depressed Canadians were recruited via recruitment posters or social media outlets that identified the target sample in the community of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that Canadians were significantly older than their Egyptian counterparts, F (1, 129) = 8.83, p =
Summary
Cross-cultural epidemiological data indicate that depression is prevalent in almost all regions of the world (Kessler & Bromet, 2013). The difference in depressive symptom presentations between Western and non-Western individuals may be largely driven by Westerners’ unique emphasis upon cognitive symptoms (e.g., feeling of sadness and anhedonia, negative thoughts about self, etc.; Kalibatseva & Leong, 2011; Parker, Cheah & Roy, 2001; Ryder et al, 2008). Due to this differential emphasis across cultures, this study attempted to examine differences between depressed Canadians and Egyptians in self-reported somatic and cognitive-affective symptoms of depression
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