An Interactive Model for the Emergence of Gender Differences in Depression in Adolescence

Abstract

There are no consistent gender differences in rates of depression among prepubescent children. By mid-adolescence (age 13 to 15 years), however, girls show significantly higher rates of depressive disorders and depressive symptoms than boys. I argue that the emergence of gender differences in depression are most likely due to an interaction of two factors: (a) Girls enter early adolescence with a style of responding to frustration and distress that is less efficacious and action-oriented than boys, and (b) girls begin to face certain uncontrollable stressors in early adolescence to a greater extent than boys.