Previous research has demonstrated that a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) and adverse psychosocial circumstances interact to predict depression. The purpose of the present study was to explore the extent to which sex modulates these effects. Eighty-one boys and 119 girls (16-19 years old) were interviewed about psychosocial background variables and genotyped for the 5-HTT promoter polymorphism. There were two main results. First, boys and girls carrying the short 5-HTTLPR allele react to different kinds of environmental factors. Whereas males were affected by living in public housing rather than in own owned homes and by living with separated parents, females were affected by traumatic conflicts within the family. Second, the responses of males and females carrying the short 5-HTTLPR allele to environmental stress factors go in opposite directions. Thus, whereas females tend to develop depressive symptoms, males seem to be protected from depression. The results suggest that both the molecular and the psychosocial mechanisms underlying depression may differ between boys and girls.

Males showed a stronger SOC and more well-being than females. Moreover, SOC and well-being increased with age in both sexes. Our findings suggest that SOC may develop over a entire lifetime.

ABSTRACT. Objectives. To investigate whether there is an association between adolescent obesity and depression in a nonclinical population and whether psychosocial and economic status and subjective experiences of shame (defined as experiences of being degraded or ridiculed by others) may account for such an association.Method. We examined associations between self-reported body mass index (BMI) and depression, controlling for gender, shame, parental employment, parental separation, and economy. The study was performed on a sample of 4703 adolescents (71% of the target population of 15-and 17-year-old students in 1 Swedish County) who answered the Survey of Adolescent Life in Vestmanland 2004.Results. Obesity was significantly related to depression and depressive symptoms among 15-and 17-yearolds. Obesity was also significantly related to experiences of shame. All significant association between BMI grouping and depression according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition disappeared when shaming experiences, parental employment, and parental separation were controlled for. Adolescents who reported many experiences of shame had an increased risk (odds ratio: 11.3; confidence interval: 8.3-14.9) for being depressed.Conclusions. There is a significant statistical association between adolescent obesity and depression. Effects of experiences of shame, parental separation, and parental employment explain this association. These results suggest that clinical treatment of obesity may sometimes not just be a matter of diet and exercise but also of dealing with issues of shame and social isolation. Pediatrics 2005;116:e389-e392. URL: www.pediatrics.org/cgi/

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Recent findings among boys show that interactions between a polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A gene promoter region (MAOA-LPR) and psychosocial factors predict criminal activity. The objective of this study was to investigate whether this finding could be extended to adolescent girls. One hundred nineteen female adolescents were recruited among respondents to a cross-sectional study of the total population of 16- and 19-year old girls. These girls constituted a randomly selected sub-sample from groups representing different degrees of risk behavior. The subjects filled in a questionnaire and were interviewed and genotyped with regard to MAOA-LPR. The results indicate that the long, (4-repeat) allele confer an increased risk for criminal behavior in the presence of psychosocial risk. Among girls without social risk, MAOA-LPR genotype was of no importance for criminal behavior. The present results suggest that previous observations on adolescent males, which demonstrate that the short MAOA-LPR genotype and psychosocial adversity interact to predict criminal activity, may not be applicable to females.