(PS10-30) How Daily Rumination Influences Negative and Positive Affect: A Multilevel Model Analysis of the Moderating Role of Culture

Background. Rumination is robustly shown to worsen negative affect (NA) and dampen positive affect (PA) across study designs, although most studies recruited people predominantly from independent cultures in the sample (e.g., European Americans). Meanwhile, a growing number of cross-cultural studies consistently have shown that the adverse effects of rumination on PA/NA are often attenuated for people from interdependent cultures, underscoring the importance of understanding how culture influences the effects of rumination. However, these studies have largely been cross-sectional. The current 14-day daily diary study is the first to explore cultural differences in how daily rumination impacts same-day and next-day PA/NA among a sample of Asian and European American college students. Method. Once per day, 78 Asian and 41 European Americans (78% female) rated their daily use of rumination (brooding, reflective pondering, and overall rumination) and PA/NA. Interdependence was assessed by the Self-Construal Scale (Singelis, 1994). Multilevel models examined the fixed effects of daily rumination on PA/NA reported on the same and the next day. The subsequent models with random effects examined whether these associations are moderated by ethnic membership/interdependent values. Results. We found evidence of cultural differences in the association between rumination and PA/NA. Ethnicity moderated the within-person effects of overall rumination in predicting same-day NA. Specifically, rumination was associated with greater same-day NA among European Americans (B = .61, SE = .13, p < .001), but the associations were attenuated among Asian Americans (B = .30, SE = .09, p < .001). Similarly, rumination was associated with a smaller increase in next-day NA among Asian Americans (B = .29, SE = .08, p < .001), relative to European Americans (B = .70, SE = .15, p < .001). A similar pattern of findings was found with interdependence as the moderator. The magnitude of the association between brooding and same-day PA was smaller among those with high interdependence (B = -.67, SE = .24, p < .001), relative to those with low interdependence (B = -1.68, SE = .23, p < .001). Discussion. Overall, our findings are consistent with a growing body of research that shows rumination is associated with worse outcomes among individuals from independent cultures than those from interdependent cultures. The results suggest that holding interdependent values may buffer the immediate adverse effects of rumination on emotional experiences. The results underscore the importance to further understand the underlying mechanism of observed cultural differences, and the need to develop culturally responsive intervention to reduce the adverse effects of rumination on psychological health. Future recommendations and clinical implications will be discussed.