Comparison of Cultural Beliefs Regarding Depression and Anxiety

Discussion – Childhood Depression and Culture
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March 31, 2022
Understanding the different dynamics of childhood depression is essential for any clinician, educator, or even parent. These symptoms help provide timely and effective treatment for the child. However, one of the most common misconceptions is that children are least likely to have depression, thereby removing the need for prompt treatment. In line with this, studies show that there are different reasons behind this misconception.
Misconceptions
One of the reasons for this misconception is the belief that depression is mainly caused by external or environmental factors around an individual. Accordingly, since children are still young and are relatively exposed to less stress, people believe that any symptoms that they have are least likely to be caused by a depressive disorder (A-Train Marketing, 2017). However, studies show that diagnosing the leading cause of depressive disorders in children is much more complex. These disorders may be caused by a mixture of genetic, physical, psychological, and other environmental factors. In fact, there are even studies showing that environmental factors are the main risk or aggravating factors, especially when it comes to children (Bhatia, 2018).
In other words, parents and adults may think that depression is least likely to happen among children because they think that these illnesses are primarily caused by personal problems, stressful situations, and other environmental factors only.
Additionally, it may be difficult to believe that children are experiencing depression because of cultural differences. Studies show that cultural differences cause a significant difference in terms of perception, effect, and treatment of depressive disorders (Bailey et al., 2019). For example, some studies show that Caucasians have a greater tendency to have acute episodes of depressive disorders than minorities (Bailey et al., 2019). More particularly, minorities are more likely to suffer “prolonged, chronic, and severely debilitating depression with heavy consequences on their level of daily functioning.” In other words, this shows the complexity of the interaction and effect of depression in line with cultural milieu, lifestyle, functioning, and perception, to name a few.
Accordingly, I believe that our own culture plays a significant role in this kind of misconception. In one study conducted by McCord et al. (2018), the authors noted that Hispanics (especially immigrants) are at greater risk of developing depressive disorders because of “discrimination, family culture conflict, acculturative and bicultural stress, intragroup rejection,” to name a few. In addition to this, studies show that the culture of Hispanics in treating children further exacerbates the current problem at hand. This is because of the tendency of Hispanic culture to be optimistic and utilize coping behaviors when dealing with these kinds of problems (Willis et al., 2016).
I realized that cultural upbringing and personal circumstances are some of the main re...