title: Gender differences in co-occurrence of depressive and anger symptoms among adolescents in five Nordic countries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to carry out a comparative examination on gender differences in depressive and anger symptoms and their co-occurrence, using comparative self-report survey data from 16-19-year-old students in five Nordic countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 8038 adolescents participated in the study, 4183 females (52%) and 3855 males (48%) with an average age of 17.1 years. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test for gender differences in symptoms for the sample as a whole and also for each country. Furthermore, partial bivariate correlation was carried out and followed up by ANCOVA to test for gender differences in the co-occurrence of depressive and anger symptoms in the five countries.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicated that, on average, adolescent females reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than males in all the countries under study and higher levels of anger symptoms in four out of five countries. The relationship between depressive and anger symptoms turned out to be stronger for females than males for all the countries under study, demonstrating higher co-occurrence of depressive and anger symptoms on average among females than males.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings underline the need for attending to both depressive and anger symptoms among adolescents when designing mental health interventions and treatments as co-occurrence of both types of symptoms is common, particularly among females.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Reykjavik University, Iceland bryndis@ru.is.
authors.forename: Bryndis Bjork
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Asgeirsdottir
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Reykjavik University, Iceland Teacher's College, Columbia University, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Inga Dora
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Sigfusdottir
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000786:Anger; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012537:Scandinavian and Nordic Countries / Q000453:epidemiology; D057566:Self Report; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Mental health; adolescence; anger symptoms; co-occurrence; comorbidity; depressive symptoms; gender