Interpersonal Ties, Macro-Cultural Context, and Global Mental Health Implications: Findings From the ISSP (2017)

A voluminous literature focuses on the associations between social capital and its potential health benefits. Against this backdrop, our study investigates the downside of interpersonal connectedness, i.e., social negativity and its relationship to negative affect. Based on multilevel analysis of the International Social Survey Programme (2017) data consisting of 31,967 individuals nested across 28 low- and high-income countries, we find significant associations between negative social ties and two measures of negative affect: loneliness and depression. We also hypothesize and test two cross-level interactions. First, we anticipate that the focal link between social negativity and the outcome is stronger (weaker) in individualist (collectivist) cultures characterized by the independent (interdependent) self-construal. Second, we also investigate whether the magnitude of this relationship becomes diminished in cultures that rank higher on Hofstede’s power distance index. Results from alternative model specifications provide robust evidence supporting the moderating role of macro cultural dimensions.