Association of Cross-Cultural Differences in Psychiatric Morbidity With Cultural Values: A Secondary Data Analysis

Background: Associations were analyzed between cultural values/attitudes and psychiatric morbid-ity/health complaints in different cultures, drawing on data from two independent cross-cultural studies. It was assumed that cross-cultural differences in psychiatric disorders and health complaints could be re-lated to differences in cultural values. Specifically, it was assumed that more traditional values are re-lated to lower prevalences of psychiatric morbidity. Methods: Data from (1) a multi-center study on cultural values (Schwartz, 1994) and (2) the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborative Study on Psychological Problems in General Health Care (Üstün & Sartorius, 1995) were jointly analyzed. Six cultural values (autonomy, conservatism, prefer-ence for hierarchy, self-mastery, egalitarian commitment, and harmony with nature) were related to re-gionally corresponding data on psychiatric morbidity (ICD-10 diagnoses) and types of symptoms pre-sented (Üstün & Sartorius, 1995). Data of eleven countries constitute the unit of analysis. Results: By and large, values representative of traditional societies (conservatism, hierarchy, and self-mastery) were negatively correlated with psychiatric diagnoses and symptoms, whereas values typical of modern/postmodern societies (autonomy and egalitarian commitment) were positively correlated wit