Punjabi Depression Inventory: A culturally sensitive measure for Punjabi-speaking migrants residing in the UK

Abstract

There is a lack of empirical research investigating the impact of culture on depressive symptoms within Punjabi-speaking individuals who reside in the UK, but originally migrated here from India. This study aims to develop and validate a new cultural measure of depression known as the Punjabi Depression Inventory (PDI). Therefore, the PDI is intrinsically linked to the Punjabi culture and language. The PDI is used to detect depression in Punjabi-speaking individuals which may be triggered as a result of their cultural experiences.In developing the new PDI measure, 191 participants were recruited to complete the questionnaire, which was analysed using Principle Components Analysis (PCA).Four subscales emerged from this data reduction analysis: (i) deflated; (ii) somatic; (iii) religion; and (iv) crying. On the whole, the early developments of the PDI demonstrated good factor structure and internal consistency for each of the four subscales.The PDI could possibly be used as an aid to provide training to help mental health professionals and to enhance their cultural knowledge of working with this class of individuals. Furthermore, the emerging PDI measure may introduce an interesting new scope for mental health professionals to broaden their methods of assessment, formulation and treatment plans. This includes the introduction of a new cultural assessment which can be utilised to identify, and specifically target, cultural depression experienced by such a cohort.