Contact: Doug Fizel
Public Affairs Office
(202) 336-5706 (until 8/12)
(415) 537-6397 (8/14 - 8/18)
[email protected]
EMBARGO: NOT FOR RELEASE UNTIL 1:00 PM (PDT), AUGUST 14, 1998
SUGAR, SPICE AND WORRIES -- RUMINATION TIED TO GENDER DIFFERENCES IN DEPRESSION RATES IN ADOLESCENTS
Other Study Suggests High Intelligence in Girls May Be a Risk
Factor for Depression in Adulthood
SAN FRANCISCO - Adolescent girls, in contrast with boys, have a
lot on their minds - their looks, their friends, personal problems,
romantic relationships, their families and more. On the other hand,
the only thing that boys worry about more than girls is succeeding in
sports or other activities. These gender differences in worrying or
rumination may be one of the reasons that by age 18 females have twice
the rate of depression as males. That's the finding of a survey of
615 San Francisco Bay Area adolescents conducted by psychologists
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Ph.D., and Joan S. Girgus, Ph.D., and presented
at the 106th Annual Convention of the American Psychological
Association in San Francisco.
It is now well documented that before the age of 11, girls and
boys have more or less equal rates of depressive symptoms and
depressive disorders. Between ages 11 and 15, though, girls' rates of
depression rise steeply while those for boys increase only slightly.
It is also well established that rumination - the passive, repetitive
focus on negative emotions - is more common in adult women than men
(when distressed) and appears to contribute to gender differences in
adult depression. And, according to Drs. Nolen-Hoeksema and Girgus,
this ruminative coping style can be seen in girls more than boys as
early as 11 years of age.
Why the gender differences in rumination? One answer, the
researchers note, "is that girls feel less control of their
environments than boys from a very early age, and this sense of
uncontrollability contributes to rumination. In essence, girls are
frantically trying to understand what's going on in their lives and
their own emotional distress, and this is manifested as rumination."
This was demonstrated by their survey of 615 sixth-, eighth- and
tenth-graders in the San Francisco Bay Area. A questionnaire asked
students to rate how much they worry about each of several issues, on
a scale from 1 ("sometimes") to 3 ("always"). There were no gender
differences in worries about school, getting along with parents and
what to do when you are older. But there were gender differences in
worry about appearance, friends, personal problems, romantic
relationships, problems with family, what kind of person they are,
being liked by other kids and being safe. Girls, at all three grade
levels, reported worrying about those issues more than boys. The only
issue that boys reported being more concerned about than girls was
"sports and other activities."
Girls' concerns, the researchers say, "are excellent fodder for
rumination. These are not easily solved issues. Many of these issues
involve others and one's relationships with others or the problems of
others that are not easy to fix and can present new challenges or
concerns every day."
Presentation: "Worried Girls: Rumination and the Transition
into Adolescence," by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Ph.D., University of
Michigan and Joan S. Girgus, Ph.D, Princeton University, Session 1194,
1:00 PM, August 14, 1998, Moscone Center - South Building, Rooms
228/230.
(Full text available from the APA Public Affairs Office.)
Pathways Toward and Away From Depression
In 1968, psychologists Jack and Jeanne H. Block, Ph.D., started
an ongoing longitudinal study of three-year-olds drawn from two
nursery schools in Berkeley, California. Study participants have been
assessed at intervals ever since to track their development and, among
other things, to see if adult characteristics, such as having
depression, can be predicted - and possibly prevented - in childhood.
Psychologist Per F. Gjerde, Ph.D., of the University of California at
Santa Cruz, has analyzed data on 52 female and 49 male participants
in that study, looking at how different types of personality
development lead toward or away from depression in young adulthood.
Three distinct types of development emerged for each gender: one
that led to high scores on a measure of depression in young adulthood,
one that led to low scores on the measure of depression and one that
fell in between.
The first type among the female participants followed a distinct
trajectory toward being depressed in adulthood. As preschoolers, they
were described as independent, intelligent, competent, confident,
worthy, decisive and free of stress. At age 14, they were still
independent and intelligent, but they were having fluctuating moods
and concerns about self-adequacy. By age 23, signs of self-doubt
combined with poor interpersonal relations and the inability to handle
stress were clearly present.
In contrast, the second group of women was described as
preschoolers as "self-assertive, stubborn, dominating and talkative."
As adolescents they were "cheerful, gregarious, expressive and
straightforward." As young adults, they were "talkative, warm,
assertive, verbally fluent and humorous. Across 20 years, signs of
brittleness, or lack of resiliency, are conspicuously absent."
Males on the life path leading to depression were, at age three,
described as vital, active, aggressive and self-assertive. As
adolescents, they were "independent, assertive, sex-typed, talkative
and unable to delay gratification." As young adults, "they were
unable to delay gratification, rebellious, hostile and unpredictable."
Males on the life path leading away from depression were, as
preschoolers, "intelligent, expressive, vital and curious; as
adolescents, intelligent, dependable and
entertained high aspirations for themselves; and as young adults, they
were cheerful gregarious, talkative and warm."
One factor in these data that Dr. Gjerde says will need further
investigation before hard and fast conclusions can be drawn about it
is the role of intelligence (as measured by IQ) in moving males and
females toward or away from developing depression in adulthood. In
males, lower intelligence correlated with a higher level of depression
and higher intelligence correlated with a lower level depression (or
it's absence). In females, however, higher intelligence correlated
with higher depression, but intelligence was unrelated to the absence
of depression. "Although we need to be cautious in drawing too strong
conclusions from a single study," Dr. Gjerde says, "these findings do
raise the interesting possibility that high IQ is a mixed blessing for
girls."
Presentation: "Pathways Toward and Away From Depression: Using a
Person-Centered Approach to Predict Adult Outcomes from Preschool
Characteristics" by Per F. Gjerde, Ph.D., and Rosy Chang, University
of California at Santa Cruz, Session 1194, 1:00 PM, August 14, 1998,
Moscone Center - South Building, Rooms 228/230.
(Full text available from the APA Public Affairs Office.)
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC,
is the largest scientific and professional organization representing
psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association
of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 155,000
researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through
its divisions in 50 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 59
state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to
advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of
promoting human welfare.
# # #
RSS