Explaining the Female Preponderance in Adolescent Depression-A Four-Wave Cohort Study

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Developmental Psychology
• Epidemiology

Background:

• A female preponderance in depression emerges during adolescence.
• Existing theories suggest either increased stress exposure or heightened stress reactivity in girls.
• Stressful life events (SLEs) and bullying are known risk factors for adolescent depression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether SLEs and bullying contribute to the gender difference in adolescent depression.
• To test the stress exposure and stress reactivity models in relation to emerging female depression rates.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study of 748 children followed biennially from ages 8 to 14.
• Clinical interviews for depressive symptoms, self-reports for SLEs, and teacher reports for bullying victimization.
• Autoregressive latent trajectory modeling to examine within-person associations and control for confounding factors.

Main Results:

• Depressive symptoms increased in girls between ages 12 and 14.
• Girls and boys had similar exposure to SLEs and bullying from ages 10 to 12.
• Increased stress (SLEs and bullying) at age 12 predicted depression at age 14 more strongly in girls than boys.

Conclusions:

• The emerging female preponderance in depression may be partly explained by increased vulnerability to the impact of stress (stress reactivity model).
• Girls' heightened sensitivity to stressful life events and bullying, rather than greater exposure, appears to drive the gender gap in depression during adolescence.