What makes Argentinian girls unhappy? A cross-cultural contribution to understanding gender differences in depressed mood during adolescence.
The aim of this work is to provide a cross-cultural contribution to the study of gender differences in adolescent mood by providing the results of a random sample of 165 Argentinian boys and girls studied longitudinally by means of a survey at 13-14, 15-16 and 17-18 years old. Using Rosenberg's Depressive Affect Scale, the gender difference, larger than that of many first-world samples, is significant at 15-16 and the gap increases at 17-18. It is already present at 13 in another sample in which Kovacs' Child Depression Inventory was applied. Girls reporting high family warmth, high self-esteem, low anxiety and who do not choose a friend as the most admired person at 13-14 have a better mood on average through adolescence while high self-esteem and weight satisfaction at 13-14 exerts this kind of effect in boys. A buffering effect of self-esteem on levels of girls' dysphoria was also demonstrated.
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D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D001828:Body Image; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors