Xiaolu Zhou1, Seongho Min2, Jiahong Sun3, Se Joo Kim4, Joung-Sook Ahn2, Yunshi Peng5, Samuel Noh6, Andrew G Ryder7. 1. Department of Management, Education College, Shanghai Normal University, 100 Guilin Rd., Shanghai 200234, China. Electronic address: zhouziaolu@shnu.edu.cn. 2. Yonsei University Wonju School of Medicine, Republic of Korea. 3. Concordia University, Canada. 4. Yonsei University College of Medicine, Republic of Korea. 5. Hunan Normal University, China. 6. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and University of Toronto, Canada. 7. Concordia University and Jewish General Hospital, Canada. Electronic address: andrew.ryder@concordia.ca.
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. LIMITATIONS: 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.
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. LIMITATIONS: 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: Dan Guo; Maria Kleinstäuber; Malcolm Henry Johnson; Frederick Sundram Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2019-03-06 Impact factor: 3.390