Journal of Youth and Adolescence, VoL 15, No. 2, 1986
Sex Differences in the Beck Depression Inventory Scores of Adolescents Pierre Baron L2 and Lyse M. Perron 3
Received August 15, 1985; accepted January 28, 1986
The purpose o f the present study is to evaluate the potential differences between male and female adolescents in their performance on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) as a function o f demographic variables and variables related to their living conditions. Three hundred and twelve adolescents between the ages o f 13 and 17 completed the B D I and a questionnaire dealing with the variables mentioned above. All adolescents were f r o m the Western Quebec area and. were registered at De l'Ile High School (Hull) or at L'Erablibre High School (Gatineau). Differences in the B D I scores were observed between female and male adolescents, with females scoring significantly higher than males. However, none o f the variables included in the questionnaire had a differential effect on the B D I scores o f either male or female adolescents. The results are discussed in light o f their relationship with some adjustment factors in adolescence.
INTRODUCTION In recent years many researchers have shown an interest in studying sex d i f f e r e n c e s i n d e p r e s s i o n ( f o r a r e v i e w , see W e i s s m a n a n d K l e r m a n , 1977;
This is a modified version of a poster paper presented at the 15th annual meeting of tbe European Association for Behaviour Therapy, Munich, August 1985. Participation at this conference was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (461-85-0373) to the first author. The authors wish to thank Madeleine Fortin and Lyne Prud'homme for their assistance, as well as Gilles Boudrias and Lionel Fournier for their cooperation. ~Associate Professor, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. Received his Ph.D. from University of Ottawa. Major research interest is depression in adolescents. 2To whom requests for reprints should he addressed at Centre for Psychological Services, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KIN 6N5. ZGraduate student at the University of Ottawa. Research interest is behavior in adolescents. 165 0047-289118610400-0165505.00/0 9 1986 Plenum Publishing Corporation
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Wood Wetzel, 1984). Epidemiological reports reveal that the rate of hospitalization for major depression and the lifetime risk of developing this affective disorder are greater among the female population than the male population (Boyd and Weissman, 1981), although some studies have reached equivocal results (e.g., King and Buchwald, 1982). Two main perspectives have been formulated to explain these differences. On the one hand, the social-role perspective assumes that the vulnerability to depression in women would be linked to the learning of traditional sexual roles (see Rosenfield, 1980). On the other hand, the physiological perspective points out that some endocrinal factors (related to either postpartum, premenstrual stress, use of oral contraceptives or menopause) would contribute toward making women more vulnerable to major depression. For the time being, it remains unclear why women may show more depressive symptoms than men (Hammen and Padesky, 1977) and substantial evidence still needs to be collected in order to bring this debate to a firm conclusion (Wing and Bebbington, 1985). Sex differences have been noticeable in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores of both adult (e.g., Beck et al., 1961) and adolescent samples (Baron and Laplante, 1984; Teri, 1982). As far as adults are concerned, it has been suggested that these differences might be related to demographic variables (see Bryson and Pilon, 1984). The purpose of this study is to evaluate potential differences in the BDI scores of female and male adolescents as a function of their living conditions and other demographic variables.
METHOD The BDI, as adapted by Bourque and Beaudette in 1982, and a questionnaire dealing with the living conditions and other demographic variables, were administered to 312 subjects ranging in age from 13 to 17 years. All adolescents came from Western Quebec Regional School Board (grade 8 to 12) and were registered as De File High School (Hull) or at L'Erabli~re High School (Gatineau). These two schools were selected because of their different socioeconomic environment-the first was located in a lower-class environment, and the second in a middle to high middle-class environment. The BDI and the questionnaire were administered during the course of regular classes. A recent study (Baron and Laplante, 1984) conducted with a sample of 374 francophone adolescents (185 males, 189 females) coming from similar environments indicated that the BDI psychometric characteristics were quite satisfactory. The study showed Bourque and Beaudette's (1982) adapted version to have good internal consistency as measured by a Cronbach's alpha of .80 and reasonable stability over time (eight-week period) as determined
Adolescence and Depression
167
Table i. Average BDI Scores of Male and Female Adolescents
for Each Age Group and for the Total Sample Age (years) n 13 19 14 27 15 37 16 34 17 14 All ages 131
Males .x_ 7.84 6.22 8.13 7.52 10.78 7.83
Females Total n ~ n .X 25 9.72 44 8.90 28 12.32 55 9.32 42 12.04 79 10.21 43 13.93 77 11.10 22 12.81 36 12.02 160 12.34 291 10.30
b y a P e a r s o n ' s r o f .74 60 < .001). These results are consistent with t h o s e o b t a i n e d b y Teri (1982) in a n e q u i v a l e n t study.
RESULTS T h e inventories a n d questionnaires o f 19 subjects were rejected because o f age (18- a n d 19-year-old adolescents were n o t retained) or due to omissions a n d / o r m i s t a k e s in the answers. A n a l y s e s were p e r f o r m e d on a final s a m p l e o f 291 subjects (160 females a n d 131 males) with a m e a n age o f 15.2 years. T h e t o t a l B D I scores o f the 291 s u b j e c t s r a n g e d f r o m 0 to 41, with a mean o f 10.30. The female adolescents' mean score was 12.34, with a stand a r d deviation o f 9.22, while the male adolescents' mean score was 7.30 with a s t a n d a r d deviation o f 7.07. T a b l e I presents the average BDI scores o f female and m a l e adolescents for each g r o u p a n d for the t o t a l s a m p l e . A t test, c o n d u c t e d to i d e n t i f y differences b e t w e e n sexes, i n d i c a t e d higher B D I scores f o r f e m a l e a d o l e s c e n t s t h a n for m a l e a d o l e s c e n t s , t(289) = 4.59, p < .001. A series o f t w o - w a y analyses o f v a r i a n c e (one c o n s t a n t variable being sex) were c o n d u c t e d to e v a l u a t e the effect o f the v a r i o u s variables i n c l u d e d in the q u e s t i o n n a i r e o n the B D I scores (used as d e p e n dent variable). T h e s e analyses have c o m b i n e d the f o l l o w i n g variables: Sex • A g e (13 to 17 years); Sex • G r a d e (grade 8 to g r a d e 12); Sex x Level o f A c a d e m i c P e r f o r m a n c e (80-89o70, 70-79~ 60-60o70)4; Sex • Status o f Natural Parents (married, separated-divorced, deceased)4; Sex x Type o f Family (traditional, single-parent)4; Sex • E m p l o y m e n t Status o f A d u l t s Living with A d o l e s c e n t ( f a t h e r - f u l l - t i m e w o r k , m o t h e r - f u l l - t i m e w o r k , m o t h e r - p a r t - t i m e work, m o t h e r - - a t home)4; Sex • Presence o f Brother(s), 4For these variables, the number of categories used for the analyses was smaller than the original number of categories included in the questionnaire because of the small number of subjects in some categories (e.g., level of academic performance of 90-100%).
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Sister(s), Stepbrother(s) and/or Stepsister(s). For each of these analyses, sex was shown to be significant, which corroborated the results obtained with the t test. None of these analyses indicated any significant interaction between sex and any o f the other variables involved. However, one of these variables was found to have a significant main e f f e c t - the level of academic performance, F(2,266) = 6.94, p < .001. A Tukey test (corrected for unequal groups) revealed a significant difference in BDI scores between subjects whose average marks were between 60-6907o and subjects whose average marks were between 80-89070, q(3,264) = 4.60, p < .01, with the former showing higher BDI scores than the latter. No significant difference was observed in the BDI scores between subjects whose average marks were between 70-79070 and subjects whose average marks were in the extremes. A three-way analysis o f variance was also conducted including sex, level of academic performance, and school (the latter serving as a socioeconomic indicator). This analysis has shown a significant main effect for sex, F(1,266) = 19.18, p < .001; for level o f academic performance, F(1,266) = 7.21, p < .001; but not for school; the analysis has not indicated any significant interaction between these variables.
DISCUSSION Before entering into any specific discussion of the results, some preliminary comments seem appropriate. On the one hand, the study involved a nonclinical adolescent sample. It is well known that self-report measures of depression such as the BDI may lend themselves to inflated scores when used with nonclinical samples (Depue and Monroe, 1978; Gotlib, 1984; Williams, 1984). Consequently, the data have to be considered with some caution. On the other hand, it must be pointed out that the results obtained with the present sample are consistent with those of recent studies. For instance, the mean BDI score for the total sample is similar to that of Siegel and Griffin's (1984) adolescent sample and that of Hammen's (1980) college student sample. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential differences in the BDI scores of female and male adolescents in relation to some demographic variables and their actual living conditions. The results replicate the sex differences often observed in nonclinical adolescent samples. However, they do not readily identify specific variables that may determine such differences in adolescents. There are two potential explanations for the present results. First, it is plausible that the majority of the variables examined in the study do not have a direct influence on sex differences in the depressive symptoms of
Adolescence and Depression
169
adolescents. In fact, some recent studies tend to indicate that the socioeconomic status, as well as the parents' marital status (or the family structure), have a smaller impact on the personal adjustment of adolescents than the interaction or the communication within the family unit (Geertsma, 1980; Hess and Camara, 1979). Also, the presence or absence of alternative support from outside the family may well play a crucial role at this age (Greenberg et al., 1983). A second explanation, inspired by Hodges and Siegel (1985), may be that sex differences observed in adolescents depend more upon developmental characteristics combined with age-related stresses than upon living conditions or other demographic variables. As far as developmental characteristics are concerned, sexual maturity may well be of particular importance, considering the earlier onset of puberty for female adolescents than for male adolescents. Actually, Hodges and Siegel (1985) report on a study by Pearce (1977) in which depressive symptoms have been found to be twice as frequent in boys with prepubertal children, whereas they have been observed to be twice as frequent in girls with postpubertal children. Sexual maturation, however, does not occur in a vacuum. It coincides with a "social transition" which may itself give rise to differential age-related stresses for girls and boys. Again, referring to a study by Rutter (1985). Hodges and Siegel (1985) point out that the shift in sex ratio noted at puberty may be a function of differential "social stressors" associated with developing interpersonal relationships and intimacy. The "double standard" noted with reference to sexual role playing (Hopkins, 1983) would contribute to such differential stressors. The influence of developmental characteristics combined with agerelated stresses would stabilize by the end of adolescence. From then on, stress factors would have a major impact on sex differences in depression. The proposed perspective helps explain why there are more differences in severity of depression related to gender in normal adolescent samples than in college student samples (e.g., Gotlib, 1984; Hammen and Padesky, 1977). It has been argued that college students constitute more homogeneous samples in terms of roles, values, and expectations for men and women (Hammen and Padesky, 1977). The proposed perspective also accounts for sex differences in depression reappearing in normal adult samples where the "marital role" would involve more stress for women than for men (Weissman and Klerman, 1977), including women at work (Krause, 1984). The proposed perspective suggests that additional adolescent developmental characteristics (such as cognitive or affective functioning) be taken into consideration and examined further (see Hodges and Siegel, 1985). Apart from sex, the present results reveal that the variable of academic performance seems to influence the incidence of depressive symptoms in adolescents. Actually, these results are similar to those obtained earlier by
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Baron and Perron
A l b e r t a n d B e c k (1975) a n d b y T e r i (1982). T h e y a r e a l s o c o n s i s t e n t w i t h a n o t h e r e t i o l o g i c a l f a c t o r m e n t i o n e d in t h e l i t e r a t u r e r e g a r d i n g d e p r e s s i o n in a d o l e s c e n t s , t h a t is, t h e p s y c h o s o c i a l d e m a n d s p l a c e d o n a d o l e s c e n t s in the c o u r s e o f j o i n i n g o r l e a v i n g h i g h s c h o o l ( R o s s m a n , 1982). H o w e v e r , f r o m this s t u d y , it is n o t o b v i o u s t h a t s u c h d e m a n d s a r e m o r e a c u t e at a n y p a r t i c u l a r p o i n t d u r i n g a d o l e s c e n c e , as r e f l e c t e d b y t h e B D I s c o r e s t h a t d o n o t a p p e a r to s i g n i f i c a n t l y i n c r e a s e as a f u n c t i o n o f age.
REFERENCES Albert, N., and Beck, A. T. (1975). Incidence of depression in early adolescence: A preliminary study. J. Youth Adolesc. 4: 301-307. Baron, P., and Laplante, L. (1984). L'InventaJre de d6pression de Beck: son utilisation aupr6s d'un 6chantillon d'adolescents francophones. Rev. modificat, comport. 14: 161-166. Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., and Erbaugh, J. (1981). An inventory for measuring depression. Arch. Gen. Psychiat. 4: 561-571. Bourque, P., and Beaudette, D. (1982). Etude psychom6trique du questionnaire de d6pression de Beck aupr~s d'un 6chantillon d'6tudiants universitaires francophones. Rev. canad, sci. comport. 14: 211-218. Boyd, J. H., and Weissman, M. M. (1981). Epidemiology of affective disorders. Arch. Gen. Psychiat. 38: 1039-1046. Bryson, S. E., and Pilon, D. J. (1984). Sex differences in depression and the method of administering the Beck Depression Inventory. J. Clin. Psychol. 40: 529-534. Depue, R. A., and Monroe, S. M. 0978). Learned helplessness in the perspective of the depressive disorders: Conceptual and definitional issues. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 87: 3-20. Geertsma, R. H. (1980). Family functioning. In Woody, R. H. (ed.), Encyclopedia o f Clinical Assessment, Vol. I, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Gotlib, 1. H. (1984). Depression and general psychopathology in university students. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 93: 19-30. Greenberg, M. T., Siegel, J. M., and Leitch, C. J. (1983). The nature and importance of attachment relationships to parents and peers during adolescence. J. Youth Adolesc. 123: 373-386. Hammen, C. L. (1980). Depression in college students: Beyond the Beck Depression Inventory. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 48: 126-128. Hammen, C. L., and Padesky, C. A. (1977). Sex differences in the expression of depressive responses on the Beck Depression Inventory. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 86: 607-614. Hess, R. D., and Camara, K. A. (1979). Post-divorce relationships as mediating factors in the consequences of divorce for children. J. Social Issues 35: 79-96. Hodges, K. K., and Siegel, L. J. (1985). Depression in children and adolescents. In Beckham, E. E., and Leber, W. R. (eds.), Handbook o f Depression: Treatment, Assessment and Research, The Dorsey Press, Homewood, Ill. Hopkins, J. R. (1983). Adolescence: The Transitional Years, Academic Press, New York. King, D. A., and Buchwald, A. M. (1982). Sex differences in subclinical depression: Administration of the Beck Depression Inventory in public and private disclosure situations. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 42: 963-969. Krause, N. (1984). Employment outside the home and women's psychological well-being. Soc. Psychiat. 19: 41. Pearce, J. (1977). Depressive disorder in childhood. J. Child Psychol. Psychiat. 18: 79-82.
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Rossman, F. P. (1982). Psychotherapeutic approaches with depressive, acting-out adolescents: Interpretative tactics and their rationale. In Feinstein, S. C., Looney, J. G., Schwartzberg, A. Z., and Sorosky, A. D. (eds.), Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol. 9, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. Rosenfield, S. (1980). Sex differences in depression: Do women always have higher rates? J. Health Soc. Behav. 21: 33-42. Rutter, M. (1985). The developmental psychopathology of depression: Issues and perspectives. In Rutter, M., lzard, C. E., and Read, P. B. (eds.), Depression in Young People: Developmental and Clinical Perspectives. Guilford Press, New York. Siegel, L. J., and Griffin, N. J. (1984). Correlates of depressive symptoms in adolescents. J. Youth Adoles. 13: 475-487. Teri, L. (1982). The use of the Beck Depression Inventory with adolescents. 3". Abnorm. Child Psychok 10: 277-284. Weissman, M. M., and Klerman, G. L. (1977). Sex differences and the epidemiology of depression. Arch. Gen. Psychiat. 34:98-1 ll. Williams, J. M. G. (1984). The Psychological Treatment o f Depression: A Guide to the Theory and Practice o f Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. The Free Press, New York. Wing, J. K., and Bebbington, P. (1985). Epidemiology of depression. In Beckham, E. E., and Leber, W. R. (eds.), Handbook of Depression: Treatment, Assessment, and Research, The Dorsey Press, Homewood, Ill. Wood Wetzel, J. (1984). Clinical Handbook of Depression, Gardner Press, New York.
Sex Differences in the Beck Depression Inventory Scores of Adolescents Pierre Baron L2 and Lyse M. Perron 3
Received August 15, 1985; accepted January 28, 1986
The purpose o f the present study is to evaluate the potential differences between male and female adolescents in their performance on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) as a function o f demographic variables and variables related to their living conditions. Three hundred and twelve adolescents between the ages o f 13 and 17 completed the B D I and a questionnaire dealing with the variables mentioned above. All adolescents were f r o m the Western Quebec area and. were registered at De l'Ile High School (Hull) or at L'Erablibre High School (Gatineau). Differences in the B D I scores were observed between female and male adolescents, with females scoring significantly higher than males. However, none o f the variables included in the questionnaire had a differential effect on the B D I scores o f either male or female adolescents. The results are discussed in light o f their relationship with some adjustment factors in adolescence.
INTRODUCTION In recent years many researchers have shown an interest in studying sex d i f f e r e n c e s i n d e p r e s s i o n ( f o r a r e v i e w , see W e i s s m a n a n d K l e r m a n , 1977;
This is a modified version of a poster paper presented at the 15th annual meeting of tbe European Association for Behaviour Therapy, Munich, August 1985. Participation at this conference was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (461-85-0373) to the first author. The authors wish to thank Madeleine Fortin and Lyne Prud'homme for their assistance, as well as Gilles Boudrias and Lionel Fournier for their cooperation. ~Associate Professor, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. Received his Ph.D. from University of Ottawa. Major research interest is depression in adolescents. 2To whom requests for reprints should he addressed at Centre for Psychological Services, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KIN 6N5. ZGraduate student at the University of Ottawa. Research interest is behavior in adolescents. 165 0047-289118610400-0165505.00/0 9 1986 Plenum Publishing Corporation
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Baron and Perron
Wood Wetzel, 1984). Epidemiological reports reveal that the rate of hospitalization for major depression and the lifetime risk of developing this affective disorder are greater among the female population than the male population (Boyd and Weissman, 1981), although some studies have reached equivocal results (e.g., King and Buchwald, 1982). Two main perspectives have been formulated to explain these differences. On the one hand, the social-role perspective assumes that the vulnerability to depression in women would be linked to the learning of traditional sexual roles (see Rosenfield, 1980). On the other hand, the physiological perspective points out that some endocrinal factors (related to either postpartum, premenstrual stress, use of oral contraceptives or menopause) would contribute toward making women more vulnerable to major depression. For the time being, it remains unclear why women may show more depressive symptoms than men (Hammen and Padesky, 1977) and substantial evidence still needs to be collected in order to bring this debate to a firm conclusion (Wing and Bebbington, 1985). Sex differences have been noticeable in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores of both adult (e.g., Beck et al., 1961) and adolescent samples (Baron and Laplante, 1984; Teri, 1982). As far as adults are concerned, it has been suggested that these differences might be related to demographic variables (see Bryson and Pilon, 1984). The purpose of this study is to evaluate potential differences in the BDI scores of female and male adolescents as a function of their living conditions and other demographic variables.
METHOD The BDI, as adapted by Bourque and Beaudette in 1982, and a questionnaire dealing with the living conditions and other demographic variables, were administered to 312 subjects ranging in age from 13 to 17 years. All adolescents came from Western Quebec Regional School Board (grade 8 to 12) and were registered as De File High School (Hull) or at L'Erabli~re High School (Gatineau). These two schools were selected because of their different socioeconomic environment-the first was located in a lower-class environment, and the second in a middle to high middle-class environment. The BDI and the questionnaire were administered during the course of regular classes. A recent study (Baron and Laplante, 1984) conducted with a sample of 374 francophone adolescents (185 males, 189 females) coming from similar environments indicated that the BDI psychometric characteristics were quite satisfactory. The study showed Bourque and Beaudette's (1982) adapted version to have good internal consistency as measured by a Cronbach's alpha of .80 and reasonable stability over time (eight-week period) as determined
Adolescence and Depression
167
Table i. Average BDI Scores of Male and Female Adolescents
for Each Age Group and for the Total Sample Age (years) n 13 19 14 27 15 37 16 34 17 14 All ages 131
Males .x_ 7.84 6.22 8.13 7.52 10.78 7.83
Females Total n ~ n .X 25 9.72 44 8.90 28 12.32 55 9.32 42 12.04 79 10.21 43 13.93 77 11.10 22 12.81 36 12.02 160 12.34 291 10.30
b y a P e a r s o n ' s r o f .74 60 < .001). These results are consistent with t h o s e o b t a i n e d b y Teri (1982) in a n e q u i v a l e n t study.
RESULTS T h e inventories a n d questionnaires o f 19 subjects were rejected because o f age (18- a n d 19-year-old adolescents were n o t retained) or due to omissions a n d / o r m i s t a k e s in the answers. A n a l y s e s were p e r f o r m e d on a final s a m p l e o f 291 subjects (160 females a n d 131 males) with a m e a n age o f 15.2 years. T h e t o t a l B D I scores o f the 291 s u b j e c t s r a n g e d f r o m 0 to 41, with a mean o f 10.30. The female adolescents' mean score was 12.34, with a stand a r d deviation o f 9.22, while the male adolescents' mean score was 7.30 with a s t a n d a r d deviation o f 7.07. T a b l e I presents the average BDI scores o f female and m a l e adolescents for each g r o u p a n d for the t o t a l s a m p l e . A t test, c o n d u c t e d to i d e n t i f y differences b e t w e e n sexes, i n d i c a t e d higher B D I scores f o r f e m a l e a d o l e s c e n t s t h a n for m a l e a d o l e s c e n t s , t(289) = 4.59, p < .001. A series o f t w o - w a y analyses o f v a r i a n c e (one c o n s t a n t variable being sex) were c o n d u c t e d to e v a l u a t e the effect o f the v a r i o u s variables i n c l u d e d in the q u e s t i o n n a i r e o n the B D I scores (used as d e p e n dent variable). T h e s e analyses have c o m b i n e d the f o l l o w i n g variables: Sex • A g e (13 to 17 years); Sex • G r a d e (grade 8 to g r a d e 12); Sex x Level o f A c a d e m i c P e r f o r m a n c e (80-89o70, 70-79~ 60-60o70)4; Sex • Status o f Natural Parents (married, separated-divorced, deceased)4; Sex x Type o f Family (traditional, single-parent)4; Sex • E m p l o y m e n t Status o f A d u l t s Living with A d o l e s c e n t ( f a t h e r - f u l l - t i m e w o r k , m o t h e r - f u l l - t i m e w o r k , m o t h e r - p a r t - t i m e work, m o t h e r - - a t home)4; Sex • Presence o f Brother(s), 4For these variables, the number of categories used for the analyses was smaller than the original number of categories included in the questionnaire because of the small number of subjects in some categories (e.g., level of academic performance of 90-100%).
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Sister(s), Stepbrother(s) and/or Stepsister(s). For each of these analyses, sex was shown to be significant, which corroborated the results obtained with the t test. None of these analyses indicated any significant interaction between sex and any o f the other variables involved. However, one of these variables was found to have a significant main e f f e c t - the level of academic performance, F(2,266) = 6.94, p < .001. A Tukey test (corrected for unequal groups) revealed a significant difference in BDI scores between subjects whose average marks were between 60-6907o and subjects whose average marks were between 80-89070, q(3,264) = 4.60, p < .01, with the former showing higher BDI scores than the latter. No significant difference was observed in the BDI scores between subjects whose average marks were between 70-79070 and subjects whose average marks were in the extremes. A three-way analysis o f variance was also conducted including sex, level of academic performance, and school (the latter serving as a socioeconomic indicator). This analysis has shown a significant main effect for sex, F(1,266) = 19.18, p < .001; for level o f academic performance, F(1,266) = 7.21, p < .001; but not for school; the analysis has not indicated any significant interaction between these variables.
DISCUSSION Before entering into any specific discussion of the results, some preliminary comments seem appropriate. On the one hand, the study involved a nonclinical adolescent sample. It is well known that self-report measures of depression such as the BDI may lend themselves to inflated scores when used with nonclinical samples (Depue and Monroe, 1978; Gotlib, 1984; Williams, 1984). Consequently, the data have to be considered with some caution. On the other hand, it must be pointed out that the results obtained with the present sample are consistent with those of recent studies. For instance, the mean BDI score for the total sample is similar to that of Siegel and Griffin's (1984) adolescent sample and that of Hammen's (1980) college student sample. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential differences in the BDI scores of female and male adolescents in relation to some demographic variables and their actual living conditions. The results replicate the sex differences often observed in nonclinical adolescent samples. However, they do not readily identify specific variables that may determine such differences in adolescents. There are two potential explanations for the present results. First, it is plausible that the majority of the variables examined in the study do not have a direct influence on sex differences in the depressive symptoms of
Adolescence and Depression
169
adolescents. In fact, some recent studies tend to indicate that the socioeconomic status, as well as the parents' marital status (or the family structure), have a smaller impact on the personal adjustment of adolescents than the interaction or the communication within the family unit (Geertsma, 1980; Hess and Camara, 1979). Also, the presence or absence of alternative support from outside the family may well play a crucial role at this age (Greenberg et al., 1983). A second explanation, inspired by Hodges and Siegel (1985), may be that sex differences observed in adolescents depend more upon developmental characteristics combined with age-related stresses than upon living conditions or other demographic variables. As far as developmental characteristics are concerned, sexual maturity may well be of particular importance, considering the earlier onset of puberty for female adolescents than for male adolescents. Actually, Hodges and Siegel (1985) report on a study by Pearce (1977) in which depressive symptoms have been found to be twice as frequent in boys with prepubertal children, whereas they have been observed to be twice as frequent in girls with postpubertal children. Sexual maturation, however, does not occur in a vacuum. It coincides with a "social transition" which may itself give rise to differential age-related stresses for girls and boys. Again, referring to a study by Rutter (1985). Hodges and Siegel (1985) point out that the shift in sex ratio noted at puberty may be a function of differential "social stressors" associated with developing interpersonal relationships and intimacy. The "double standard" noted with reference to sexual role playing (Hopkins, 1983) would contribute to such differential stressors. The influence of developmental characteristics combined with agerelated stresses would stabilize by the end of adolescence. From then on, stress factors would have a major impact on sex differences in depression. The proposed perspective helps explain why there are more differences in severity of depression related to gender in normal adolescent samples than in college student samples (e.g., Gotlib, 1984; Hammen and Padesky, 1977). It has been argued that college students constitute more homogeneous samples in terms of roles, values, and expectations for men and women (Hammen and Padesky, 1977). The proposed perspective also accounts for sex differences in depression reappearing in normal adult samples where the "marital role" would involve more stress for women than for men (Weissman and Klerman, 1977), including women at work (Krause, 1984). The proposed perspective suggests that additional adolescent developmental characteristics (such as cognitive or affective functioning) be taken into consideration and examined further (see Hodges and Siegel, 1985). Apart from sex, the present results reveal that the variable of academic performance seems to influence the incidence of depressive symptoms in adolescents. Actually, these results are similar to those obtained earlier by
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A l b e r t a n d B e c k (1975) a n d b y T e r i (1982). T h e y a r e a l s o c o n s i s t e n t w i t h a n o t h e r e t i o l o g i c a l f a c t o r m e n t i o n e d in t h e l i t e r a t u r e r e g a r d i n g d e p r e s s i o n in a d o l e s c e n t s , t h a t is, t h e p s y c h o s o c i a l d e m a n d s p l a c e d o n a d o l e s c e n t s in the c o u r s e o f j o i n i n g o r l e a v i n g h i g h s c h o o l ( R o s s m a n , 1982). H o w e v e r , f r o m this s t u d y , it is n o t o b v i o u s t h a t s u c h d e m a n d s a r e m o r e a c u t e at a n y p a r t i c u l a r p o i n t d u r i n g a d o l e s c e n c e , as r e f l e c t e d b y t h e B D I s c o r e s t h a t d o n o t a p p e a r to s i g n i f i c a n t l y i n c r e a s e as a f u n c t i o n o f age.
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