Preadolescent Clues to Understanding Depression in Girls

Abstract

Between the ages of 10 and 15, increases in depression among girls result in a rate that is twice as high as the rate of depression in boys. This sex difference remains throughout early and middle adulthood. Prior to early adolescence, there is essentially no sex difference in the rate of depression. The aim of the present review is to examine whether the preadolescent period is a time during which precursors to depression in girls can be identified. First, existing areas of research on explaining sex differences in depression, including cognitive and affiliative style and the socialization of emotion, are reviewed. Second, the hypothesis that for some girls, preadolescent precursors to depression take the form of excessive empathy, compliance and regulation of negative emotions is articulated. Third, ways of building on existing models by including the proposed preadolescent precursors are proposed. Finally, approaches to testing the hypotheses that individual differences in these domains during preadolescence may explain later individual differences in adolescent onset depression are explored.

Cognitive Vulnerability–Stress Model of Depression During Adolescence: Investigating Depressive Symptom Specificity in a Multi-Wave Prospective Study

“…In addition to the past equivocal results on possible age and sex moderation as a reason for exploring potential age and sex influences, some developmental theories postulate that age will moderate the cognitive vulnerability-stress interaction such that it will predict depressive symptoms in older, but not younger, youth (Cole and Turner 1993). Likewise, some theoretical models posited to understand the sex difference in depression have postulated sex-specific models in which particular factors and processes are hypothesized to predict depression in girls, but not boys (e.g., Keenan and Hipwell 2005;Zahn-Waxler et al 2006), whereas other theories specify a general depression model that would apply equally to both boys and girls (e.g., . Thus, it is important to examine possible age and sex moderation given the inconsistent past research and the differing theoretical models.…”

Preadoption adversity, MAOA, and behavioral adjustment in internationally adopted Chinese girls

“…However, studying sex effects in adopted children from other cultures (i.e. in which both sexes are available for adoption in more equal numbers) would be especially important as MAOA is an X-linked gene and internalizing problems (such as depression) are less common in males than in females (Keenan and Hipwell, 2005). A second strength of our study was the fact that our measures of preadoption adversity and psychological adjustment were obtained 4 years apart.…”

“…However, heterozygous females were excluded from their analyses and no sex differences were reported. Because depression rates are particularly high for females (as opposed to males; Keenan and Hipwell, 2005) and internalizing problems are a risk factor for depression, further study of the potential effects of MAOA on internalizing problems in girls would be particularly important.…”

Análisis longitudinal de la comorbilidad entre depresión y agresión: Cronicidad y severidad en sujetos de 11 a 13 años

“…En cuanto al sexo, los datos hallados en este estudio indicaron la ausencia de un efecto significativo en el grupo comórbido, confirmando de nuevo nuestra hipótesis previa. Estos resultados son consistentes con los hallados por Knox y colaboradores (2000) en población clí-nica, revelando que una patología comórbida como la depresiva-agresiva en niños y adolescentes de población normal, hace de saparecer las diferencias esperables que el sexo modula en la expresión de la agresión y la depresión (Bruce et al, 2006;Canals, Doménech-Llaberia, Fernández-Ballart & Martí-Henneberg, 2002;Keenan & Hipwell, 2005;Knox et al, 2000;Ortega & Monks, 2005).…”