Ethnoracial Group Differences in the Effects of Rumination on
Psychological Well-being
Abstract
Background: Is rumination always associated with poorer mental
health? Although some work suggests that the answer to this question is
“yes”, some studies suggest that there are adaptive and maladaptive
types of rumination that have distinct influences on mental health.
Moreover, a growing number of studies have now shown rumination to have
weaker maladaptive effects among individuals from interdependent
cultural contexts (e.g., Asian Americans). The current study examined
ethnoracial group differences in the use and associations of rumination
types (i.e., brooding, casual analysis, reflective pondering, and
problem-solving analysis) with depressive symptoms and life satisfaction
among a diverse sample of Asian Americans, Latinx Americans, and
European Americans. Methods: 198 Asian Americans, 168 Latinx
Americans, and 235 European Americans recruited from Amazon Mechanical
Turk completed an online cross-sectional survey. Results:
Controlling for other rumination types, brooding emerged as a
maladaptive type of rumination with strong associations with greater
depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction among all ethnoracial
groups. In contrast, problem-solving analysis emerged as an adaptive
type of rumination with associations with lower depressive symptoms and
greater life satisfaction among Asian and Latinx Americans only, whereas
this relationship was not significant among European Americans.
Discussion: Findings suggest the importance of considering
culture in distinguishing between adaptive versus maladaptive types of
rumination. The strength of the association of rumination types with
psychological well-being varied by ethnoracial group in theoretically
expected ways. Implications for culturally sensitive interventions are
discussed.