JAPAN-US COMPARISON OF RESPONSES TO DEPRESSION SCALE ITEMS AMONG ADULT WORKERS

Citation
N. Iwata et al., JAPAN-US COMPARISON OF RESPONSES TO DEPRESSION SCALE ITEMS AMONG ADULT WORKERS, Psychiatry research, 58(3), 1995, pp. 237-245
Citations number
35
Categorie Soggetti
Psychiatry
Journal title
ISSN journal
01651781
Volume
58
Issue
3
Year of publication
1995
Pages
237 - 245
Database
ISI
SICI code
0165-1781(1995)58:3<237:JCORTD>2.0.ZU;2-F
Abstract
The operating characteristics of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale were compared between Japanese and U.S. adult workers . Data were analyzed from age- and education-matched male white collar workers (n = 368 for each) selected from 2016 workers in Japan and 30 59 in the United States. The U.S. data were obtained from the 1974-75 Augmentation Survey of the National Health and Examination Survey I. T he Japanese responses to positively worded items markedly differed fro m those of U.S. workers, whereas responses to negatively worded items were generally comparable in the two groups. Thus, spuriously higher p ositive subscale and whole scale scores were found among the Japanese workers compared with U.S. workers (mean scores: 6.03 vs. 1.83 for the positive subscale and 9.94 vs. 5.35 for the whole scale, respectively ; both differences were statistically significant). Negative subscale scores did not differ significantly in the two samples (3.91 vs. 3.52) . The present study confirmed the hypothesis of Iwata et al. that Japa nese respondents have a tendency to suppress the expression of positiv e affect.