Depression in the Planet’s Largest Ethnic Group: The Chinese

Parker, Gordon; Gladstone, Gemma; Chee, Kuan Tsee

doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.158.6.857

Cited by 399 publications

(185 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Comprising nearly a quarter of the world’s population, the Chinese are the single largest ethnic group and constitute the largest Asian subgroup in the United States. 1,2 According to Census estimates, there are over 3.1 million Chinese individuals residing in the United States and almost half a million are located in New York City (NYC). 3 Despite their presence, the health status of Chinese Americans, and particularly recent Chinese immigrants, is poorly understood as they remain underrepresented in health surveys.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Impact of Behavioral Risk Factors and Known-Groups Validity of the SF-12 in a US Chinese Immigrant Population

et al. 2009

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Background Health status measures are being used in increasingly diverse populations. However, there are no known studies to date that examine the SF-12 in US Chinese populations. This study reports on the performance and validity of the SF-12 among Chinese immigrants residing in New York City, and evaluates the impact of multiple behavioral risk factors on physical and mental health status. Methods We used cross-sectional survey data from a multistage probability sample of 2537 Chinese adults. SF-12 scores were examined according to sociodemographic, cultural, and clinical characteristics. Regression analyses were used to examine associations between health status and co-occurring behavioral risk factors of smoking, risky drinking, physical inactivity, and overweight/ obesity. Results SF-12 scores were significantly lower among women, those with less education, lower incomes, and more health problems (P < 0.001). Older adults had worse physical but better mental health (P < 0.05). Individuals with 1, 2, 3, and 4 behavioral risk factors reported decreases of 1.91, 2.92, 4.86, and 9.21 points on the PCS-12, respectively, in comparison with the reference group having zero risk factors (P < 0.01). Similar trends up to 2 co-occurring risks were observed with MCS-12 scores (P < 0.01). Conclusions The SF-12 exhibited known-groups validity in a US Chinese immigrant population. Co-occurring behavioral risk factors were associated with progressive declines in physical health, independent of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics traditionally associated with impairments in health status. Targeting patients with multiple risks for behavior change may be effective in improving health across diverse populations.

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confidence: 99%

Assessing the Impact of Behavioral Risk Factors and Known-Groups Validity of the SF-12 in a US Chinese Immigrant Population

et al. 2009

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“…For example, it has been suggested that Asian sociocultural factors (e.g., traditional cultural concepts with elements of -fatalism‖) may provide some protection against depression (Parker et al, 2001b). This reasoning is consistent with the growing evidence showing that compared to Westerners, Asians are more likely to accept negative emotions as inevitable and as a part of reality (e.g., viewing…”

Section: Nationssupporting

confidence: 59%

“…The most developed of these suggests that in Chinese culture, mental illness is often viewed as a weakness of character and a cause of family shame (Mak & Chen, 2010;Parker, Gladstone, & Chee, 2001b). Consistent with this reasoning, several studies have shown that stigma associated with depression is more severe among Asians than Caucasian Americans (Chan & Parker, 2004;Chung & Wong, 2004;Hsu et al, 2008).…”

Section: Why Do Chinese People Emphasize Somatic Symptoms?mentioning

confidence: 98%

Understanding depression across cultures: a social identity perspective

Chang¹

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There is now considerable evidence showing that culture shapes psychological processes, and this extends to depression and psychopathology more generally. In particular, an understanding of the processes and mechanisms through which culture influences depression is important not only to clinical practice, but also in the designing of interventions to promote resilience to depression. For example, such cultural understanding helps therapists to determine whether and when clients will be influenced by culture and its norms, and accordingly, the impact on their expression, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of depression. The present thesis adopts a social identity perspective to advance research on the cultural underpinnings of depression in three research streams that investigate (a) the symptomatic presentation of depression, (b) cultural factors associated with vulnerability, and (c) resilience, to depression.Much of the work on the relationship between culture and the expression of depression has centered on Asians" tendency to emphasize somatic symptoms of the condition over psychological symptoms. However, despite extensive investigation of Asian somatization, there has been little progress in explaining how and when culture affects depression expression. To address this gap, the studies in Chapter 2 drew on social identity principles and processes to explain when culture and its norms would affect somatization.Three studies were conducted to investigate the role of cultural identity on somatization; predicting that norm endorsement would occur only when individuals identified with their culture. The key finding was that among Asians, normative expectations of collectivism predicted somatization, but only when participants strongly identified with Asian culture.These findings highlight the centrality of identification processes to cultural influence on depression.Investigations of culture and depression expression tend to conceptualize the Western perspective as the frame of reference or norm. That is, Asian somatization is commonly viewed as dysfunctional in Western contexts, whereby Asians and their emphasis on somaticizing depression is often portrayed as "that which needs to be explained". In Chapters 3 and 4, we shifted focus to studying the effect of Western culture on depression, an arguably neglected area of research. More importantly still, the socially potent nature of cultural norms in exerting influence tends to be overlooked in the literature of this field. Hence, the studies in these chapters drew on a norm-based approach to characterize cultural influence, and investigated the effects of specific collective-level cultural factors (i.e., social norms) associated with vulnerability to depression among Westerners.iii Along these lines, the study reported in Chapter 3 examined whether and why social norms communicating the value of happiness (that happiness is desirable) could potentially make individuals feel worse (i.e., more depressed). We also investigated differences in these effect...

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“…Poor communication skills would make such an adaptive process even more difficult. 13 Moreover, access to health care is also likely to be impaired.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Sociodemographic and Diabetes-Related Factors on the Presence and Severity of Depression in Immigrant Chinese Australian People With Diabetes

Meng¹,

Molyneaux²,

McGill³

et al. 2014

Clinical Diabetes

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In BriefThe coexistence of depression with diabetes significantly increases the likelihood of developing complications. This study aimed to describe the presence and severity of depression in immigrant Chinese Australian people with diabetes and explore its relationship to sociodemographic and diabetes-related factors. This study found that approximately one-fifth of immigrant Chinese Australian people with diabetes had symptoms consistent with moderate to severe depression and that individuals who are socially isolated and have more complex treatment and complications of diabetes are particularly at risk.

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Depression in the Planet’s Largest Ethnic Group: The Chinese

Cited by 399 publications

References 40 publications

Assessing the Impact of Behavioral Risk Factors and Known-Groups Validity of the SF-12 in a US Chinese Immigrant Population

Assessing the Impact of Behavioral Risk Factors and Known-Groups Validity of the SF-12 in a US Chinese Immigrant Population

Understanding depression across cultures: a social identity perspective

Impact of Sociodemographic and Diabetes-Related Factors on the Presence and Severity of Depression in Immigrant Chinese Australian People With Diabetes

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