A two‐year longitudinal study of gender differences in responses to positive affect and depressive symptoms during middle adolescence

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the prospective associations during adolescence between depressive symptoms and response styles to positive affect and to examine gender differences. A longitudinal study was conducted with three waves separated by 1 year each to assess a non-clinical sample of 622 Spanish adolescents who were 13 and 14 years old (50.2% boys, 49.8% girls). The participants completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms and responses to positive affect (emotion-focused positive rumination, selffocused positive rumination and dampening of positive emotion). The results showed that the increase in depressive symptoms was associated with an increase in dampening and decreases in emotion-focused and self-focused positive rumination. Furthermore, girls presented more depressive symptoms, as well as higher dampening and lower self-focused positive rumination, than boys. The conclusions highlight the need to consider responses to positive affect in explaining gender differences in depressive symptoms during midadolescence, as well as in designing prevention programs.

Positive affect regulation in youth: Taking stock and moving forward

“…Child characteristics, such as child gender, may also be important moderators in these processes. Prior studies have shown that girls dampen more than boys (Gentzler, Ramsey, Yi, Palmer, & Morey, 2014) particularly among adolescents, where 13-14-year-old boys' dampening decreased across two years but girls' increased (Gomez-Baya, Mendoza, Paino, & Gillham, 2017), and girls in ninth (but not seventh or eighth grade) dampened more than boys (Nelis, Bastin, Raes, & Bijttebier, 2018). The tendency for girls to dampen may have downstream effects on their later positive feelings and depression (Gentzler et al, 2014;Gomez-Baya et al, 2017;Nelis et al, 2018).…”

“…Prior studies have shown that girls dampen more than boys (Gentzler, Ramsey, Yi, Palmer, & Morey, ) particularly among adolescents, where 13–14‐year‐old boys’ dampening decreased across two years but girls’ increased (Gomez‐Baya, Mendoza, Paino, & Gillham, ), and girls in ninth (but not seventh or eighth grade) dampened more than boys (Nelis, Bastin, Raes, & Bijttebier, ). The tendency for girls to dampen may have downstream effects on their later positive feelings and depression (Gentzler et al, ; Gomez‐Baya et al, ; Nelis et al, ). Perhaps these gender differences emerge as a result of gender‐differentiated PA socialization, similar to studies examining gender‐specific NA socialization and its links to psychopathology (Brand & Klimes‐Dougan, ).…”

Valuing happiness in youth: Associations with depressive symptoms and well-being

“…Rates of depression increase in mid-adolescence compared to childhood and girls have been found to experience higher rates of depression than boys (Hankin et al, 2015;SAMHSA, 2012). Moreover, risks for depression may also operate differently depending on youth age or gender (Gentzler, Ramsey, Yi, Palmer, & Morey, 2014;Gomez-Baya, Medoza, Paino, & Gillham, 2017;Mezulis, Abramson, Hyde, & Hankin, 2004). Finally, we explored whether youth's value of happiness was related to socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., parent education or income) given how little is known about the value of happiness in youth.…”

The Longitudinal Stability and Predictive Capability of Positive and Negative Self-Schemas in a Multi-Informant Study of Child and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms and Life Satisfaction

“…First, the sample size did not allow for the effect of participant gender on central study variables to be explored. Given females reported significantly higher levels of YR-ES at Time 1 and a robust literature signaling gender differences in depression emerge during adolescence (Hankin et al 1998;Gomez-Baya et al 2017), such analyses would have been advantageous. Similarly, the sample size was insufficient to explore the contributions of specific positive self-schema themes to aspects of youths' functioning.…”