Abstract
Utilizing a World Health Organization (WHO) multi-national dataset, the present study examined the relationships between emotion, affective variability (i.e., the fluctuation of emotional status), and depression across six developing countries, including China (N = 15,050); Ghana (N = 5,573); India (N = 12,198); Mexico (N = 5,448); South Africa (N = 4,227); and Russia (N = 4,947). Using moderated logistic regression and hierarchical multiple regression, the effects of emotion, affective variability, culture, and their interactions on depression and depressive symptoms were examined when statistically controlling for a number of external factors (i.e., age, gender, marital status, education level, income, smoking, alcohol drinking, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and diet). The results revealed that negative emotion was a statistically significant predictor of depressive symptoms, but the strength of association was smaller in countries with a lower incidence of depression (i.e., China and Ghana). The association between negative affective variability and the risk of depression was higher in India and lower in Ghana. Findings suggested that culture not only was associated with the incidence of depression, but it could also moderate the effects of emotion and affective variability on depression or the experience of depressive symptoms.
Article PDF
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
World Health Organization. The global burden of disease: 2004 update. Geneva: WHO Press; 2008.
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th ed., text rev. ed. Washington, DC, 2000.
Brown TA, Chorpita BF, Barlow DH. Structural relationships among dimensions of the DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders and dimensions of negative affect, positive affect, and autonomic arousal. J Abnorm Psychol 1998;107:179–92.
Bylsma LM, Morris BH, Rottenberg J. A meta-analysis of emotional reactivity in major depressive disorder. Clin Psychol Rev 2008;28:676–91.
Peeters F, Berkhof J, Delespaul P, Rottenberg J, Nicolson NA. Diurnal mood variation in major depressive disorder. Emotion 2006;6:383–91.
Peeters F, Berkhof J, Rottenberg J, Nicolson NA. Ambulatory emotional reactivity to negative daily life events predicts remission from major depressive disorder. Behav Res Ther 2010;48:754–60.
Wichers M, Lothmann C, Simons CJP, Nicolson NA, Peeters F. The dynamic interplay between negative and positive emotions in daily life predicts response to treatment in depression: a momentary assessment study. Br J Clin Psycho. 2012;51:206–22.
Ferrari AJ, Charlson FJ, Norman RE, et al. Burden of depressive disorders by country, sex, age, and year: findings from the global burden of disease study 2010. PLoS Med 2013; 10.
Zautra AJ, Affleck GG, Tennen H, Reich JW, Davis MC. Dynamic approaches to emotions and stress in everyday life: Bolger and Zuckerman reloaded with positive as well as negative affects. J Pers 2005;73:1511–38.
Davidson KW, Mostofsky E, Whang W. Don’t worry, be happy: positive affect and reduced 10-year incident coronary heart disease: the Canadian Nova Scotia Health Survey. Eur Heart J 2010;31:1065–70.
Pressman SD, Cohen S. Does positive affect influence health? Psychol Bull 2005;131:925–71.
Zhang X, Fung H, Ching BHH. Age differences in goals: implications for health promotion. Aging Ment Health 2009;13:336–48.
Lerner JS, Keltner D. Fear, anger, and risk. J Pers Soc Psychol 2001;81:146–59.
Lerner JS, Tiedens LZ. Portrait of the angry decision maker: how appraisal tendencies shape anger’s influence on cognition. J Behav Decis Making 2006;19:115–37.
Davidson RJ. Anterior electrophysiological asymmetries, emotion, and depression: conceptual and methodological conundrums. Psychophysiology 1998;35:607–14.
Trull TJ, Solhan MB, Tragesser SL, et al. Affective instability: measuring a core feature of borderline personality disorder with ecological momentary assessment. J Abnorm Psychol 2008;117:647–61.
Palmier-Claus JE, Taylor PJ, Gooding P, Dunn G, Lewis SW. Affective variability predicts suicidal ideation in individuals at ultra-high risk of developing psychosis: an experience sampling study. Br J Clin Psychol 2012;51:72–83.
Gruber J, Kogan A, Quoidbach J, Mauss IB. Happiness is best kept stable: positive emotion variability is associated with poorer psychological health. Emotion 2013;13:1–6.
Brandt ME, Boucher JD. Concepts of depression in emotion lexicons of eight cultures. Int J Intercultural Relat 1986;10:321–46.
Jenkins JH, Kleinman A, Good BJ. Cross-cultural studies of depression. In: Becker J, Kleinman A, editors. Psychosocial aspects of depression. New York: Erlbaum Press; 1991. p. 67–99.
Kirmayer LJ. Cultural variations in the clinical presentation of depression and anxiety: implications for diagnosis and treatment. J Clin Psychiatry 2001;62:22–30.
Kahneman D, Krueger AB, Schkade DA, Schwarz N, Stone AA. A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: the day reconstruction method. Science 2004;306:1776–80.
Eid M, Diener E. Intra individual variability in affect: reliability, validity, and personality correlates. J Pers Soc Psychol 1999;76:662–76.
Tsai JL, Knutson B, Fung HH. Cultural variation in affect valuation. J Pers Soc Psychol 2006;90:288–307.
Shao J, Li D, Zhang D, Zhang L, Zhang Q, Qi X. Birth cohort changes in the depressive symptoms of Chinese older adults: a cross-temporal meta-analysis. J Geriatr Psychiatry 2013;28:1101–8.
Chan DKC, Hagger MS. Theoretical integration and the psychology of sport injury prevention. Sports Med 2012;42:725–32.
Hagger MS, Chatzisarantis NLD. Assumptions in research in sport and exercise psychology. Psychol Sport Exerc 2009;10:511–9.
Chan DKC, Lonsdale C, Ho PY, Yung PSH, Chan KM. Patient motivation and adherence to post-surgery rehabilitation exercise recommendations: the influence of physiotherapists’ autonomy supportive behaviors. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2009;90:1977–82
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
About this article
Cite this article
Chan, D.K.C., Zhang, X., Fung, H.H. et al. Does emotion and its daily fluctuation correlate with depression? A cross-cultural analysis among six developing countries. J Epidemiol Glob Health 5, 65–74 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2014.09.001
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2014.09.001