A Cross-Cultural Survey of Depressive Symptomatology in Normal Adults

Abstract

Depression as a diagnostic entity consists of signs and symptoms which may be manifest in normal individuals. The purpose of this study was to determine how much depressive symptomatology as measured by the Self-rating Depression Scale is present in a normal adult population representing different countries and cultures. A total of 1981 normal subjects was tested in six countries. Rank ordering of the mean SDS indices showed Czechoslovakia to be highest, followed by Sweden, Germany, Spain, England, and the U. S. A. Statistical testing by using analysis of variance indicated that these differences were quantitatively significant. Factor analysis of items indicated qualitative similarities across the countries studied, as evidenced by the fact that loadings were larger on items reflecting the psychological features of depression in all countries studied. This is in contrast to factor analysis results of previous data from depressed patients, where the factor loadings contained physiological as well as psychological items. A similarity between rank ordering of self-rated depression scores and reported suicide death rates for the countries studied was noted.