An Ecological Model for Cross Cultural Research in Stress and Mental Health

An Ecological Model for Cross Cultural Research in Stress and Mental Health

This paper develops an ecological model for cross cultural research in stress and mental health. It integrates two research traditions: (1) research on social stress, which typically focuses on the individual and neglects the social context; and (2) cross cultural mental health research, which emphasizes social structure and culture, but tends to overlook characteristics of the individual. Recent methodological developments for the analysis of multilevel models provide a framework for integrating these perspectives. In this application, the macro-level is the nation or society, and the micro-level is the individual; the model takes into consideration the fact that societies are comprised of individuals. Two important implications for cross cultural research emerge from this application. The first ramification concerns a crossover effect: characteristics of the society bypass direct exposure to stress and influence the individual indirectly by modifying the social environment. The second ramification concerns cross-level interactions: the mental health impact of characteristics of the individual is contingent upon attributes of the social environment. The primary contribution of the multilevel ecological model is that it provides a method to differentiate processes unique to particular cultures from processes that generalize across diverse settings, and the potential interaction of these unique and universal processes.