Mental Distress and Perceived Wealth, Justice and Freedom Across Eight Countries: The Invisible Power of the Macrosystem

Health and well-being have been related to macro-level factors such as income, income inequality or socioeconomic status. With regard to the increasing burden of disease due to mental disorders worldwide, the association between the macrosystem and mental distress should be further explored, too. In this context, the subjective evaluation of the macrosystem might play an important role. In the present exploratory study, we assessed symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress as well as perceived wealth, justice and freedom in population-based surveys in Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (n ≈ 1000 per country). The Swedish sample presented the lowest symptom ratings of depression, anxiety and stress and the highest self-rated health. The results also indicated that the subjective evaluation of the macrosystem matters in respect to mental distress. The complete model, including the control variables country, gender, age and education, and perceived wealth, justice and freedom predicted depression, anxiety and stress symptoms explained 8% of the variance of each symptom cluster. The present results encourage research to consider the macrosystem, and the subjective evaluation of macro-level factors, as a relevant component in biopsychosocial models of mental distress.