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Cross-Cultural Beliefs About "Depression"

A. Furnham & R. Malik

Professor of Psychology, Psychology Department, University College, London

R. Malik

Psychology Department, University College, London

This study set out to compare native Britons' and Asian-Britons' (from the Indian sub-continent) beliefs about the causes and cures of depression. In all 152 females took part, half of whom were middle-aged and half young. The results indicated that middle-aged Asian migrants significantly differed from the middle-aged British and young Asian samples in their beliefs about depression and anti-depressive behaviour. They also scored significantly higher than the middle-aged British women on a Western measure of psychiatric morbidity, yet they did not report depression in themselves or others. The young Asian sample, on the other hand, appear to have adopted a perception of depression that is similar to that of their British peers. It seems that the perception of the causes and symptoms of depression and appropriate anti-depressive behaviour is mediated by cultural values and beliefs that the individual has been exposed to in their formative years, which subsequently affects their tendency to recognise, report and seek help for depression. The results are discussed in terms of the literature on the 'new cross- cultural psychiatry'.

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 40, No. 2, 106-123 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/002076409404000203


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