The gender-depression connection

Before adolescence, an equal number of boys and girls experience depression, but after puberty, girls are twice as likely as boys to develop depression, particularly around age 13, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The question is why.

Laura Choate, an associate professor at Louisiana State University and author of the book Girls' and Women's Wellness: Contemporary Counseling Issues and Interventions, published by ACA, says a definitive answer to that question has yet to emerge, although several different possibilities would appear to make sense.

"Researchers have developed no comprehensive model to explain these sex differences because it is likely there are multiple processes contributing to them," Choate says. "Overall, girls have more cognitive, biological and interpersonal vulnerability factors prior to adolescence and face more stressful events during the transition to adolescence. It is the combination of these factors that lead to the higher rates [of depression]."

Stress: "Compared with boys, girls experience more stressors during early adolescence," Choate says. "In addition, girls are more affected than boys are by these stressful life events and are more likely to become depressed in response to life stressors, particularly when these are interpersonal in nature." She notes that studies show interpersonal stress is associated with higher depression and lower self-esteem for girls but not for boys.

Transition to puberty: Girls who reach puberty early are more likely to experience a host of negative psychological outcomes such as lower self-esteem, a history of suicide attempts and a lifetime of eating and disruptive behavior disorders, Choate says. A change in schools, such as the transition to high school, can add to these problems.

Choate explains that girls who mature physically at a younger age are more vulnerable to being "pressured to participate in activities they are not cognitively or emotionally mature enough to handle." They are also more likely to be sexually harassed and pressured into sexual activity before they are developmentally ready, which can increase the likelihood of depression.

Confusing feelings: Girls tend to be excessively empathetic, Choate says, which can make them feel guilty and overly responsible for another person's problems. In addition, girls often exhibit high levels of compliance and overregulation of emotions, which can contribute to developing a depressive disorder.

Rumination: Choate says girls generally tend to engage in a "ruminative" style of thinking about problems, which is linked to depression. In other words, they think about and talk about their depressed mood rather than developing possible solutions and actively solving the problem. They also tend to blame themselves.

The idea of "co-rumination" - excessive talk about problems within friendships or romantic relationships - adds to the problem, Choate says. "Interestingly, even though the use of social media has not been directly measured as a source of girls' problems, this co-ruminative tendency among friends has been recently termed 'Facebook depression.'"

Connections: Girls are socialized with a greater need for affiliation than boys, according to Choate. This means girls are more likely to measure their self-worth and form their self-esteem on the basis of the success of their relationships and on others' approval of their appearance and behavior. This makes girls more likely to become depressed if their peers reject them in any way.

Appearance: According to research, Choate says, the most important factor in self-worth for girls is confidence in their appearance, while for boys, it is confidence in their abilities. "Because adolescent girls are so concerned with gaining the approval of others, and because a thin, beautiful and sexy appearance is so highly valued in today's culture, girls may become overly concerned with their appearance, weight and shape in determining a sense of self. Girls who internalize the thin-beautiful-sexy ideal are more likely to have body dissatisfaction, which is strongly linked to depression in girls."

- Jim Paterson


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