Being stuck on negatives isn’t equally bad: A cross-cultural Bayesian meta-analysis of rumination and its relation to depression

J Affect Disord. 2025 May 6:S0165-0327(25)00781-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2025.05.025. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Our understanding of rumination, an emotion regulation strategy that plays a critical role in depression, is limited in its cultural generalisability. Recent cross-cultural studies suggest that higher levels of rumination may not entail the same degree of depression between Eastern dialectical and Western analytical thinkers. This study aims to clarify this by quantitatively summarising existing literature to test whether the level of rumination and its relation to depression differ across these two cultures.

METHODS: A robust Bayesian meta-analysis was conducted to compare cultural differences in rumination levels across 15 studies with a total sample of 8505 participants. Additionally, 8 studies with a combined sample of 6815 participants were further analysed to examine culture’s moderating effect on the relationship between rumination and depression.

RESULTS: We found 4 times more evidence supporting cultural differences in the mean level of rumination (vs. no cultural difference), with Easterners ruminating more than Westerners. Additionally, evidence for cultural moderation of the relationship between rumination and depression was 2.8 times stronger than evidence for no moderation, with a weaker relationship observed among Easterners.

LIMITATIONS: Our study was limited by a small sample size, high heterogeneity, and a focus on only two cultures.

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that greater rumination may not correspond to the same level of depression across cultures, highlighting the importance of considering culture in understanding emotion regulation.

PMID:40339718 | DOI:10.1016/j.jad.2025.05.025