The current study sought to examine the role of traditional values in China and the United States as one of the important social psychological mechanisms through which romantic relationships affect mental health. The work is guided by the Social Structure and Personality framework, focusing on the meaning construction dictated by traditional values in the stress process, while also addressing the structural and cultural origins of meanings. Specifically, I used path models to examine how those internalized values moderate the impacts of romantic relationships on the mental health of Chinese and American college students and also compared the effects across gender and nations with Multi-group SEM method. The results show that traditional values work as a major social-psychological mechanism influencing Chinese students only by exacerbating the impacts of breakups on their depression. In terms of gender and national patterns, the most important finding is that the unconditional main effect of traditional values differs across gender and nations and Chinese women are mostly harmed by those values. The results partially support the theoretical construction and also add to both the meaning studies in the stress process and the substantive research of romantic relationships and mental health.