A cross-cultural study of depressive symptomology

Black (N = 26), white (N = 26) and Overseas Chinese (N = 32) college students were surveyed with Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS). With the exception of two items where marginally significant differences were found, there were no quantitative differences in the results across these ethnic groups. Inter-item analyses, factor analyses and comparison of factor profiles indicated that the items clustered in different configurations for the three groups. The factors contributing the most variances differed in their item contents across the ethnic groups: a mixture of affective and somatic complaints characterizes the black group; existential and cognitive concerns characterize the white group and somatic complaints characterize the Overseas Chinese group. Discussion was focused on issues concerning cultural conception of psychological difficulties, communication styles used to communicate these difficulties and situational variables affecting performances on psychological diagnostic tests.