Alternative pathways to chronic depressive symptoms in young adults: gender differences in developmental trajectories.
Personality and intelligence associated with depressive symptoms in 23-year-olds were evaluated using prospective data from preschool through adolescence. Gender moderated the prospective relations between personality/intelligence and age-23 depressive symptoms. Young men with elevated age-23 General Behavior Inventory (GBI) scores manifested as early as in preschool allocentric behaviors: undersocialization and interpersonal antagonism. This pattern remained highly stable over the following 15 years. Prospective correlates of depressive symptoms in young women--not reliably identified until adolescence--were more likely than in young men to express autocentric concerns: oversocialization and introspective concern with self. These gender differences continued to persist but decreased in strength after puberty. Intellectual competence displayed significantly stronger negative correlations with age-23 GBI scores in males than in females. Findings were discussed in terms of gender differences in the development of chronic depressive symptoms, with special emphasis on equifinality in developmental pathways.
Gjerde
P F
PF
Board of Studies in Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz 95064, USA.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011779:Q-Sort; D012307:Risk Factors; D012951:Socialization