Individualism–collectivism and depressive sensitivity to life events: the case of Malaysian sojourners

In addressing the mental health of international students, individualism-collectivism is treated as a dimension of cultural distance that produces differential sensitivity to life events. A collectivist cultural orientation is hypothesized to promote depressive dysphoria in response to negative social events and to increase the inhibitory effect of positive social events. An individualist cultural orientation is hypothesized to promote depressive dysphoria in response to negative achievement-related events and to increase the inhibitory effect of positive achievement-related events. A prospective study comparing Malaysian and British students at the same university confirmed the predicted cultural differences in sensitivity to social events. Predicted differences for achievement-related events were partially confirmed. Malaysian students were also considerably more dysphoric than their British counterparts, as expected. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.