A cross-cultural examination of pleasant events and depressive symptoms

To examine the associations between pleasant or reinforcing activities (as they relate to the behavioral theory of depression) and depressive symptoms across cultures.

We tested for differences in the strength of association between pleasant events and depressive symptoms in probability samples of adults from the United States (N = 619) and Japan (N = 232).

Results indicate that frequency, enjoyment, and obtained pleasure from pleasant events were significantly and negatively associated with depressive symptoms for both American and Japanese adults, and these associations were significantly greater in magnitude for American adults relative to Japanese adults.

Findings suggest that there is a cross-sectional association between pleasant events and depressive symptoms in both the United States and Japan, and that this association is stronger in the United States.