Cultural determination of mental health and psychological well­-being: methodological issue

Relevance.The growth of mental health disorders, psychological problems in modern society among different categories of the population, including representatives of different cultures and faiths and the lack of cultural development of specific approaches to understanding mental health and psychological well-being raise the problem of cultural conditionality of representations of mental health and psychological well-being in a number of important interdisciplinary problems, of high scientific and practical importance in such multinational and multicultural countries as Russia.

Objective.To examine the relationship between cultural context and mental health and psychological well-being.

Methods.Review and analysis of current research in the field of cultural conditioning of various aspects of mental health and psychological well-being.

Conclusions.The analysis of the different approaches to the study of representations of mental health and psychological well-being has allowed to establish that the existing differences in ways of coping with stress, the level of stigma in seeking psychological help have cultural conditioning and do not only depend on socio-economic living conditions, but also on subjective perceptions of these phenomena, as well as ethnic and cultural identity of people in a particular society. The urgency and necessity of development of new and cultural-specific adaptation of existing diagnostic tools for comparative study of ideas about mental health and psychological well-being within one territorially united society, which is characterized by high ethnic and cultural diversity, are shown.