Depression and help-seeking in a western sample of ‘highly acculturated’ Chinese and controls

Background commonly reported that “the Chinese” have low rates of depression, partially reflecting a greater tendency to somatize and to be less likely to seek help. ive mine the impact of acculturation on depression reporting and help-seeking patterns. pared 50 highly acculturated Chinese with age and gender-matched non-Chinese control subjects in a western region on measures of state and lifetime depression, attributional interpretation of somatic cues and help-seeking. s ghly acculturated Chinese did not differ in state depression rates or tendency to ‘somatize’. There were trends for the Chinese to be less likely to view any depressive episode as a ‘disorder’ and to seek help for a psychological problem. sion ences held to exist in the Chinese in acknowledging, reporting and seeking help for depression appear strongly culturally determined.