RESEARCH ARTICLE Social Rhythm and Mental Health: A Cross- Cultural Comparison Jürgen Margraf1*, Kristen Lavallee1,2, XiaoChi Zhang1, Silvia Schneider1 1 Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany, 2 Division of Developmental and Personality Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland *
[email protected] Abstract Background Social rhythm refers to the regularity with which one engages in social activities throughout the week, and has established links with bipolar disorder, as well as some links with depres- sion and anxiety. The aim of the present study is to examine social rhythm and its relation- ship to various aspects of health, including physical health, negative mental health, and positive mental health. OPEN ACCESS Citation: Margraf J, Lavallee K, Zhang X, Schneider Method S (2016) Social Rhythm and Mental Health: A Cross- Cultural Comparison. PLoS ONE 11(3): e0150312. Questionnaire data were obtained from a large-scale multi-national sample of 8095 repre- doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150312 sentative participants from the U.S., Russia, and Germany. Editor: Ulrich S Tran, University of Vienna, School of Psychology, AUSTRIA Results Received: August 22, 2015 Results indicated that social rhythm irregularity is related to increased reporting of health Accepted: February 11, 2016 problems, depression, anxiety, and stress. In contrast, greater regularity is related to better overall health state, life satisfaction, and positive mental health. The effects are generally Published: March 8, 2016 small in size, but hold even when controlling for gender, marital status, education, income, Copyright: © 2016 Margraf et al. This is an open country, and social support.