GENDER DIFFERENCES IN DEPRESSION ACROSS THE LIFESPAN

女性报告高水平抑郁的可能性是男性的两倍。 症状并被诊断为单相抑郁症。许多 对抑郁症的性别差异有不同的解释 提出了这项拟议中的研究将检验性别 抑郁症的差异主要归因于两个因素。第一、 妇女面临的社会条件使她们经历了 比男性更频繁地感到痛苦。其次，女性往往有更多的 沉思型和被动型的应对自己的苦恼的方式比男性多， 这加剧和延长了出现的痛苦时期， 妇女，并干扰妇女的能力，克服负面事件 他们面对。本文提出的研究的第一个目标是验证这一点 解释抑郁症的性别差异对替代 其他理论家提出的解释。与会者 研究，所有这些人都将是成年人，将被采访两次，一年 除此之外，由临床培训的面试官，以确定他们的水平， 抑郁症状以及是否符合重度抑郁症的标准， 心境恶劣障碍在这些采访中，我们还将评估 以及参与者遇到的消极生活环境的类型， 他们应对这些情况的方式。这 将使我们能够测试我们的主要假设，即女性将报告更多 消极的生活环境和更被动和沉思的应对方式 这两个因素加在一起， 横截面和纵向的抑郁差异 分析。我们还将测试两种性别的替代解释 抑郁症的差异：女性有更多的自我挫败感 与男性相比，归因方式，这解释了他们的 抑郁症的发病率更高， 抑郁症状会使女性的抑郁程度明显升高 与男人相比。研究的第二个目标是确定 年龄与性别的相互作用如何影响抑郁症的脆弱性。我们 将收集关于性别差异相对大小的基本数据， 抑郁症在三个成年年龄组，早期成年人（25-35岁），中期 成人（45-55岁）和老年人（65-75岁）。然后，我们将检查 是否有不同的因素与性别差异有关， 抑郁症在不同年龄，以及女性和男性是否会变得抑郁 在不同的年龄有不同的问题。本研究的意义在于 它将提供与妇女和儿童的发展有关的因素的基本数据， 男人在人生重要时刻的沮丧这些数据表明 针对妇女的干预措施应针对哪些具体风险因素 和男性在生命的不同阶段。

Women are about twice as likely as men to report high levels of depressive symptoms and to be diagnosed with a unipolar depressive disorder. Many different explanations for this gender difference in depression have been proposed. The proposed study will test the hypothesis that the gender difference in depression is attributable primarily to two factors. First, the societal conditions women face lead them to experience periods of distress more frequently than men. Second, women tend to have a more ruminative and passive style of responding to their own distress than men, which exacerbates and prolongs the periods of distress that arise for women, and interferes with women's ability to overcome the negative events they face. The first goal of the study proposed here is to test this explanation of the gender differences in depression against alternative explanations that other theorists have proposed. Participants in this study, all of whom will be adults, will be interviewed two times, one year apart, by clinically trained interviewers to determine their levels of depressive symptoms and whether they meet criteria for major depression or dysthymic disorder. In these interviews, we will also assess the number and types of negative life circumstances participants have encountered and their styles of coping with their distress over these circumstances. This will allow us to test our primary hypothesis that women will report more negative life circumstances and a more passive and ruminative coping style than men, and that these two factors together will account for the gender difference in depression in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. We will also test two alternative explanations of the gender differences in depression: that women have more self-defeating attributional styles compared to men, and that this accounts for their greater rates of depression, and that the presence of premenstrual depressive symptoms inflates the apparent levels of depression in women compared to men. The second goal of the study is to determine whether and how age interacts with gender to influence vulnerability to depression. We will gather basic data on the relative size of the gender difference in depression in three adult age groups, early adults (ages 25-35), middle adults (ages 45-55), and older adults (ages 65-75). Then, we will examine whether different factors are associated with the gender difference in depression at different ages, and whether women and men become depressed over different issues at different ages. The significance of this study is that it will provide basic data on the factors associated with women's and men's depressions at important points in life. These data will suggest what specific risk factors should be targeted in interventions for women and men at various points in the lifespan.