Somatization, which refers to the experience and articulation of physiological problems in response to psychosocial distress, has been found to be prevalent among the Chinese. Past research in medical anthropology and cultural psychopathology has asserted that Chinese cultural values are related to somatization, while research in epidemiology and psychiatry has reported that the prevalence of somatization was associated with a range of demographics and health factors. To further complicate the picture, somatization among the Chinese has been found to vary as a function of its operationalization, namely, somatic expressions and ratings on a checklist. In the present studies, I examined the interplay between various factors explored in prior studies and somatization with different...[ Read more ]

Somatization, which refers to the experience and articulation of physiological problems in response to psychosocial distress, has been found to be prevalent among the Chinese. Past research in medical anthropology and cultural psychopathology has asserted that Chinese cultural values are related to somatization, while research in epidemiology and psychiatry has reported that the prevalence of somatization was associated with a range of demographics and health factors. To further complicate the picture, somatization among the Chinese has been found to vary as a function of its operationalization, namely, somatic expressions and ratings on a checklist. In the present studies, I examined the interplay between various factors explored in prior studies and somatization with different operationalizations among Chinese participants. The findings revealed that orientation to Chinese culture had a limited contribution to somatization regardless of the operationalization. Nevertheless, cultural factors other than orientation to Chinese culture (i.e., Chinese health beliefs, horizontal collectivism), health factors (i.e., self-perceived health condition, difficulty identifying feelings), and age were found to be significantly associated with somatization, and the factors involved varied with the operationalization of somatization. Chinese participants were also found to have a stronger tendency to somatize their experiences in emotionally negative scenarios than in emotionally positive scenarios. These findings are consistent with the previous finding in the arena of psychiatry that somatization is influenced by a wide range of cultural and non-cultural factors. The present results also challenge the hypothesis that somatization is mainly a cultural phenomenon.