◦ 905 10th and 11th grade high school students (54% girls)

◦ 63% Caucasian; 24% African-American; 13% Hispanic; remaining were Asian or “other”

◦ Mean age = 16.10 (SD=.67); age range 15-17

◦ All participants attended a public high school in Delaware, Pennsylvania, or Maryland

◦ Most of the adolescents (56%) lived with both biological parents; 89% lived with their biological mother and 61% lived with their biological father

Sample

The Relationship between Gender and Adolescent Depression: The Mediating Role of Coping

Christine McCauley Ohannessian, University of DelawareAshley Malooly, University of Miami

Conclusions

*Supported by NIAAA K01AA015059

Results

Measures

MeasuresAdolescent Coping. Participants completed the 60-item COPE Inventory (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub, 1989) to assess coping strategies. The adolescents were asked to respond in relation to what they generally do and feel when experiencing stressful events. The response scale ranges from 1= don’t’ do this at all to 4 = do this a lot. The following scales were used in this study: Venting emotions (“I get upset and let my emotions out”), instrumental social support (“I try to get advice from someone about what to do”), active coping (“I concentrate my efforts on doing something about it”), denial (“I say to myself ‘this isn’t real’”), religious coping (“I put my trust in God”), humor (“I laugh about the situation”), emotional social support (“I discuss my feelings with someone”) and planning (“I make a plan of action”). The COPE has been shown to be a reliable and valid measure of coping (Carver, Scheier &Weintraub, 1989; Phelps & Jarvis, 1994). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the COPE scales ranged from .75 - .90 in our sample.

Adolescent Depression. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC; Weissman et al., 1980) was used to assess adolescent depressive symptomatology. The adolescents were asked to respond to the CES-DC items in relation to how they felt or acted during the past week. A representative item from this measures is “I felt sad.” The response scale ranges from 1 = not at all to 4 = a lot. The 20 CES-DC items were summed to create a total score. The CES-DC has been found to have good psychometric properties (Faulstich et al., 1986). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the CES-DC total score was .90 in our sample.

During the spring of 2007 (Time 1), adolescents in participating high schools who had parental consent and also provided their own assent were given a self-report survey in school by trained research staff. The survey took approximately 40 minutes to complete. Upon completion of the survey, the adolescents were compensated with a movie pass. All of the participants were invited to participate again in the spring of 2008 (Time 2).

Procedures

The primary goal of this study was to systematically examine whether coping strategies mediate the relationship between gender and adolescent depression. Surveys were administered to 905 10th and 11th grade high school students in the spring of 2007 and again in the spring of 2008. Results indicated that girls had higher levels of depressive symptomatology than boys. In addition, venting emotions, emotional support , and active coping were found to mediate the relationship between gender and depression. Girls were more likely to use all three of these coping strategies than were boys. Venting emotions, in turn, increased depressive symptomatology; whereas emotional social support and active coping decreased depressive symptomatology.

ANOVAs were conducted to examine whether the study variables differed by gender. In addition, Pearson product-moment correlations were calculated to examine the bivariate associations between coping strategies and depressive symptomatology, by gender. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine whether coping mediates the relationship between gender and depression. The SEM analyses were conducted in four steps. Model 1 was a fully saturated model, including non-specified direct paths. Model 2 examined the specified model. Model 3 was a streamlined model, including only the paths that were significant in Model 2. Model 4 was identical to Model 3, with the exception that the disturbance terms of the endogenous variables were allowed to be correlated.

Analyses

Descriptive Statistics and Bivariate Relationships

Girls reported higher levels of coping for all of the strategies except for denial and humor (see Table 1). As shown in Table 2, denial and venting emotions were significantly associated with depression for both boys and girls. In addition, gender differences in the relationship between coping and depression were found for the following strategies: Active coping, planning, and religious coping. All three strategies were associated with modest reductions in depressive symptomatology for girls, but not for boys.

Consistent with the literature, girls were found to have higher levels of depressive symptomatology than boys. Results from this study indicate that coping strategies may play a role in this gender difference. More specifically, the relationship between gender and adolescent depression was found to be significantly mediated by venting emotions, emotional support, and active coping. Girls were more likely to use these coping strategies in comparison to boys. In turn, venting emotions increased depressive symptomatology, whereas emotional social support and active coping decreased depressive symptomatology. Venting emotions was an especially strong mediator. These results suggest that prevention programs targeting depression should educate youth (especially girls) to avoid the use of venting emotions when coping with stress. In contrast, seeking emotional social support and active coping should be encouraged.

Abstract

Results

SEM ResultsThe initial saturated model (Model 1) did not fit the data well (X2(28) = 1998.17, p = .00; NFI = .16; CFI = .16; RMSEA = .33). However, a significant direct path was observed between gender and depression (β = .10, p < .05). This path was retained in the subsequent model. The overall fit of Model 3 (Model 2 was not conducted because the direct path was significant) was not improved over Model 1 (X2(35) = 2008.75, p = .00; NFI = .16; CFI = .15; RMSEA = .30). In contrast to the previous models, Model 4 fit the data quite well (X2(7) = 14.64, p = .04; NFI = .99; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA = .04). As shown in Figure 1, a significant direct path was found between gender and depression (β = .10, p<.05). Gender also significantly predicted venting emotions (β = .39, p<.001), instrumental social support (β = .30, p<.001), active coping (β = .08, p<.01), religious coping (β = .12, p<.01), and emotional social support (β = .39, p<.001). In turn, venting emotions, active coping, and emotional social support significantly predicted depression (βs = .23, p<.001; -.14, p<.01; and -.12. p<.05, respectively). Denial also significantly predicted depression (β = .23, p<.001).

Sobel test results indicated that the relationship between gender and adolescent depression was significantly mediated by venting emotions (c.r. = 4.08, p<.001). This finding suggested that girls were more likely to use venting emotions than boys; in turn, venting emotions increased depressive symptomatology. The relationship between gender and depression also was significantly mediated by emotional social support (c.r. = -2.07, p<.05) and active coping (c.r. = -2.13, p<.05). These results indicated that girls were more likely to use emotional social support and active coping than boys; in turn, these coping strategies decreased depressive symptomatology.

Boys Girls

F-Ratio from

ANOVA

Significant Post-Hoc

Differences

Active Coping 9.05(3.30) 10.02(2.89) 12.43*** Boys < Girls

Denial Coping 6.14(2.87) 6.42(2.96) n.s. n.s.

Emotional Support Coping 8.54(3.38) 11.23(3.24) 41.82*** Boys < Girls

Humor Coping 9.02(3.39) 8.69(3.60) n.s. n.s.

Instrumental Support Coping 9.09(3.37) 11.20(3.09) 30.56*** Boys < Girls

Planning Coping 9.13(3.52) 10.09(3.34) 7.68** Boys < Girls

Religious Coping 7.67(3.68) 9.17(4.18) 9.45** Boys < Girls

Venting Emotions Coping 7.25(3.09) 9.94(3.07) 59.09*** Boys < Girls

Depression 34.31(10.78) 37.36(12.28) 8.45** Boys < Girls* p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001.

Table 1Means and Standard Deviations for Coping Strategies and Depression at Time 1 by Gender

Table 2

Time 1 Time 2

Coping Strategy Boys Girls Boys Girls

Active -.01 -.15** -.06 .-06

Denial .26*** .25*** .34*** .40***

Emotional Support .04 -.06 .02 -.02

Humor -.02 -.09 -.08 -.08

Instrumental Support .04 -.07 -.11 -.02

Planning .03 -.12* .03 -.08

Religious .03 -.15** .06 -.00

Venting Emotions .28*** .23*** .30*** .22***

Table 2Correlations between Coping Strategies and

Depression by Gender at Times 1 and 2

* p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001.

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EmotionalSocial Support

Humor

Denial

VentingEmotions

ReligiousCoping

InstrumentalSocial Support

ActiveCoping

Planning

DepressionGender

.39***

.30***

.08**

.10*

.12**

.39*** -.12*

.23***

-.14**

.23***

Note. Standardized coefficients are presented. For ease of interpretation, only significant paths are shown.