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Comment
. 2014 Dec;25(12):2277-80.
doi: 10.1177/0956797614543802. Epub 2014 Oct 10.

Just how bad negative affect is for your health depends on culture

Katherine B Curhan  1 , Tamara Sims  2 , Hazel R Markus  1 , Shinobu Kitayama  3 , Mayumi Karasawa  4 , Norito Kawakami  5 , Gayle D Love  6 , Christopher L Coe  7 , Yuri Miyamoto  7 , Carol D Ryff  8
Affiliations
Comment

Just how bad negative affect is for your health depends on culture

Katherine B Curhan et al. Psychol Sci. 2014 Dec.

Abstract

Pressman, Lopez and Gallagher (2013) conclude that across the globe negative emotions are bad for one’s health. Yet, just how bad negative emotions are for health depends on culture. In U.S. American contexts, negative feelings are construed as the individual’s responsibility and as harmful. In Japanese contexts, negative feelings are construed as rooted in relationships and as natural. Using six clinically-relevant measures and two representative samples, we tested the hypothesis that negative affect is more strongly associated with poor health in the U.S. (n = 1,741) than in Japan (n = 988). Negative affect more strongly predicted poor health in the U.S. than in Japan for multi-item assessments of physical health (chronic conditions, physical functioning) and mental health (psychological well-being, self-esteem). There were no differences for single-item health assessments (life satisfaction, global health). These findings underscore the need for further theoretically-driven investigations of how cultural construals shape the emotion-health link.

Keywords: Japan; culture; emotion; health; negative affect.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Higher frequency of negative affect predicts worse health in the U.S. (n = 1,741) than in Japan (n = 988). Note. Degree of association between negative affect and health is represented by standardized beta coefficients. ***p < .001; **p < .01.
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