Multiple Group Memberships and Wellbeing across Cultures: The Moderating Role of Relational Mobility

Multiple group memberships are beneficial for health and wellbeing in westernised, individualistic nations such as the UK, Australia, and the United States. However, multiple group memberships may not have the same benefit in more collectivistic nations, perhaps because people do not strive to achieve positive distinctiveness from their groups in these nations (Smith & Easterbrook, 2017). We find that MGM is associated with less depression across the UK, Hong Kong, and Turkey, but that this effect is moderated by whether respondents can leave groups they are dissatisfied with. Probing this moderation further showed that MGM are only beneficial in the UK, and only when respondents feel they can leave dissatisfying groups. MGM were not beneficial in HK or Turkey.