Understanding Sex Differences in Depressive Symptomatology among Malaysian Adolescents

Abstract

Understanding sex differences in depressive symptomatology among Malaysian adolescents ABSTRCT Depressive symptomatology is among the primary psychological problems experienced by adolescents. Extant literature has also extensively reported sex diferences in the occurrence of depressive symptoms. However, a majority of related research has primarily been carried out in the Western context. Hence, we conducted a study to identify the prevalence of depressive symptoms among Malaysian adolescents, and to determine its relationship with certain risk factors as well as the potential moderating role of sex. The sample comprised of 964 adolescents from 20 secondary schools across Malaysia. Logistic regression results demonstrated that stressful life events and maternal verbal aggression signifcantly predicted symptoms of depression. In moderation tests, sex signifcantly interacted with stressful life events and parental verbal aggression in predicting depressive symptoms. Hence, there is evidence to suggest that the depressogenic impact of stressful life events and parental verbal aggression on depressive symptomatology difers between male and female adolescents.

Stressful Life Events and Subjective Well-Being in Vocational School Female Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Depression and the Moderating Role of Perceived Social Support

“…The finding is also consistent with the cognitive vulnerability-stress model of depression (Cyranowski et al, 2000) and previous empirical studies showing that female adolescents are more vulnerable to the influence of SLEs on depression (Agoston and Rudolph, 2016;Barra et al, 2019). The reason might be that female adolescents tend to use relatively maladaptive strategies (e.g., emotion-focused coping) to deal with daily stress (Matud, 2004;Barra et al, 2019). Given that maladaptive strategies are associated with poor healthrelated quality of life and mental health (Graven et al, 2014), it is not difficult to understand why female adolescents are more likely to develop depression in face of daily stressful events.…”

“…The cognitive appraisal theory of stress and coping interprets this finding as a result of unsuccessful adaptation when stressful events are appraised as threatening, challenging, or harmful that exceeds individual's coping capacity (Crum et al, 2017). The finding is also consistent with the cognitive vulnerability-stress model of depression (Cyranowski et al, 2000) and previous empirical studies showing that female adolescents are more vulnerable to the influence of SLEs on depression (Agoston and Rudolph, 2016;Barra et al, 2019). The reason might be that female adolescents tend to use relatively maladaptive strategies (e.g., emotion-focused coping) to deal with daily stress (Matud, 2004;Barra et al, 2019).…”

“…This conjecture is well supported by numerous empirical studies. First, cross-sectional studies provide evidence that SLEs are positively correlated with depression in adolescents (Barra et al, 2019). Second, longitudinal studies show that SLEs predict the onset and the relapse of depression (Tessner et al, 2011;Evans et al, 2014).…”

“…On one hand, SLEs over a long period of time increase the risk of health diseases (e.g., tension headache) via altering adolescents' neural and immune system functions (Cohen et al, 2019). On the other hand, exposure to SLEs are thought to increase the risk of mental problems, such as depression (Barra et al, 2019) and anxiety (Herbison et al, 2017). In addition, SLEs are reported to be associated with the increase in problematic behaviors including drug use (Hoffmann et al, 2000), Internet addiction (Zhao et al, 2017), and suicide (Liu and Miller, 2014).…”

Child well‐being in the context of family harmony: Parental marital relationship as mediator and parent–child attachment style as moderator

“…Comparable studies in Malaysia have focused on the effects of divorce on adolescent well‐being (Low, 2014) and attitude toward divorce (Yaacob et al, 2016). In fact, many studies in Malaysia have focused on the influences of parental factors other than the quality of parental marital relationship (such as parenting behavior, attitude, and style) on adolescents such as life satisfaction (Yap & Baharudin, 2016), academic achievement (Baharudin et al, 2010), antisocial behaviors (Baharudin et al, 2011), self‐efficacy (Keshavarz & Baharudin, 2012), self‐esteem (Yahya et al, 2018), depression (Ang et al, 2017; Barra et al, 2019; Jun et al, 2013; Yahya & Zulkefly, 2019), anxiety (Jafari et al, 2016), socioemotional adjustments (Baharudin et al, 2012), and psychological health (Yahya et al, 2018). There is very little research in Malaysia on the influence of parental marital relationship as an indicator of family harmony on younger children, that is, children in middle childhood.…”