Growing up, the stressed and pressures of life really had an impact on a lot of my friends. Many times, they set such high expectations for themselves and beat themselves up if they couldn’t attain their goals. Some of my friends from high school suffered (and still do) from depression. It was heartbreaking to watch the people I adored most lose the light inside themselves. Depression is a terrifying thought, and it is often not understood by many people, including me. However, something I did notice, was that the majority of my friends suffering from depression were girls. That got me thinking – are women more prone to depression than men?
Feeling blue
Biologically
According to Christina M Mulé in this article , hormones play a significant role in why women are more susceptible to depression than men. Often, many women suffer from depression in their transition through menopause, which could be widely influenced by hormonal changes, but also something as merely as not feeling “womanly” enough. A lot of this could also be left likely to genetic transmission, but there is no concrete evidence biologically speaking, merely theories.
Adolescence
This article continues, more interestingly, into how depression plays a role in adolescence, showing that girls are more susceptible to depression at a very young age. The article explains that this could be a factor of puberty, vulnerability, or even stress.
The Study
Ge. and Conger conducted a longitudinal study of 451 families of adolescents. Their hypothesis was that girls will have higher levels of depression than boys on average. In the study, they paid of visit to each family, asking a series of questions to the entire family based upon life events, characteristics, etc.
- Null hypothesis: there is so significance between genders and depression
- Confounding Variables: Family history of depression
- Chance: Possible
The Results
The researchers found that early displays of depression in children carry on throughout their entire adolescence, and that the early stresses of life often impact girls than boys. The results of the study was consistent with the hypothesis proposed, and the researchers even found these early signs of gender difference in depression carries through the rest of life. Though the results could potentially be a false positive, or even up to chance, it’s highly unlikely because several other studies are consistent with these findings as well.
Differences Between Men and Women
Further exploring depression and gender, Cari Nierenberg discusses ways in which depression differs between men and women:
- Women are more likely to dwindle on the actual feeling of depression (aka the emotion) – whereas men are more likely to act out in ways such as alcohol or substance abuse.
- Women are more prone to reacting to stressful life events, resulting in their depression. Whether it be divorce, loss of a loved one, or work stress, it can really have a huge impact on women. Women are also more likely to turn to eating disorders when depressed, making these two go hand in hand.
- Men are more inclined to hide their symptoms. I believe this has something to do about being “manly” – men don’t want to be seen as weak, so they will cover up their depression because they don’t want to seem vulnerable. Men are also more likely to take their own lives.
Conclusion
Depression is a matter that researchers will continue studying for years to come, because I don’t think anyone really gets fully understands it, and there is no concrete consensus from any study, just hypothetical theories. So, if you know someone battling depression – just be there. Try to educate yourself as much as possible so you can wholeheartedly support them, even if you are unfamiliar.
Sources
Mulé, Christina M. “Why Women Are More Susceptible to Depression: An Explanation for Gender Differences.” Why Women Are More Susceptible to Depression. N.p., Mar. 2004. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.
Nierenberg, Cari. “7 Ways Depression Differs in Men and Women.” LiveScience. Purch, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 02 Dec. 2016.
I think a major problem in the fight against depression is that not enough people view it as a clinical disease, with some being ashamed that they have fallen into deep despair. A third variable that you mentioned but did not include in your analysis is the fact that men are less likely to admit to having depression, possibly skewing your results to more girls having depression than males. I also found it intriguing when you said males commit suicide at a greater rate, and after doing more research, I found that in 2010, out of the 38,000 people whom took their own life, 79% were males. This is a pretty shocking statistic to me, but I believe it’s probably attributed to the more lethal methods a male would take to end his life opposed to drug overdose, the most widely used method by women.
Very interesting. Do you think age of the two genders also have an impact? Or do you think the findings would switch if you look at a particular age group?
Awesome post. I completely agree that genders act different during depression. In the end everyone goes through a bad time in their life and everyone is going to react differently. Its just how people are, nobody is the same. Interesting post and you did a great job! Here is an article about gender difference in depression. http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/depression/exploring-gender-difference-depression
This is so interesting to me as a psychology student. We learn that boys have a harder time overcoming emotional challenges, so I too believed that they would be more susceptible to depression. I did appreciate the usage of anecdotal information. Though I do understand that this is a private topic, I think relating stress of getting good grades to clinical depression is a bit of a stretch. Great post overall.
I agree what you had to say in your conclusion. Depression happens to everyone and I think you did a great job stating your claims in this post. It shocked me that males are not more likely to get depressed because I have always thought that they would. I also liked how you implented stress because as we know stress and depression are similar
Your blog shows a lot of facts and information that shows your views. Depression and gender I don’t believe is a things but we do have our differences. Females takes and show their emotions differently from males but there are many different things you can do to help that. But along with males they deal with their emotions differently to whether there are hidden them or getting aggressive about it.
I definitely agree on gender behaviors during depression, but I honestly resonate with women when it comes to reacting to stressful events. When too much is on me, my gestures and emotions always show how I’m feeling. Great blog and nice organization!
This is interesting because I naturally would imagine boys would be more susceptible to depression, at least in our society. It is discouraged for men to be emotional or express their feelings and I would think that would cause a lot more problems where as women tend to openly share feelings with one another.