An Investigation of the Etiology of Female Depression - Research Paper Example

Studies have shown that depression is higher in females, especially in adolescent females. This research study attempts to examine some ofthe potential reasons that could explain such gendered differences. It appears that the tendency of girls to internalize their emotions may be a causative factor that exacerbates their higher rates of depression. Female Depression According to Lester and Lester (1971) the ratio of females to males who attempt suicide due to depression is 3:1 in the general population and this figure rises to 9:1 in the adolescent population. This result suggests that there may be gendered differences in the prevalence of depression and that it may be more common among females, especially in adolescent populations. The aim and objective of this research study is to determine whether other studies also support such findings on gendered differences between males and females on depression. This study also proposes to explore what the reasons for female depression may be, as suggested by a variety of research studies that have examined adolescent depression. This research Paper will focus upon female depression in adolescents. This research study is significant, because it may help to shed some light on potential reasons that could underlie higher rates of depression in females. In view of the fact that suicide attempts appear to be higher in females than in males, identifying some of the potential causes that may lead to depression may help school counselors to identify predictive factors that indicate depression and forestall any suicide attempts. In a study that was conducted among high school students in South Korea, the factors that led to suicidal behavior were also identified (Hyun et al, 2006). This study found that depression was one of the most important predictors of suicidal behavior. A multivariate analysis conducted among both males and females identified different reasons for suicide among males and females. Among males, the reasons for such behavior were more likely to be due to psycho-social environmental variables such as parental divorce and parental alcohol. But this was not the case in females, where the causes were identified as higher rates of internalizing behavior which include depression, anxiety and hostility. In the case of females, this study found that self esteem was predictive of less suicidal ideation after adjusting for the influence of other potential predictors, indicating that higher self esteem is concomitant with less depression and lower suicidal tendencies (Hyun et al, 2006).The results of this study are significant in establishing the differences between males and females, since the number of respondents was almost the same in each gender category, i.e, 654 males and 658 females. This study thus appears to suggest that some of the reasons that could be causal factors in depression in adolescence are levels of parental support and self esteem. However, the reason for the gendered differences among males and females as suggested by this study appears to be the higher internalization rates among females, so that they are more emotionally vulnerable and this may contribute to depression when associative factors such as low self esteem and lack of parental support are present. In yet another study that examined adolescents, patterns in symptoms of depression in both genders from adolescence into young adulthood were examined (Meadows et al, 2006). This study concluded that stresses generated during adolescence due to lack of parental support, are responsible for depression, however, there was a distinct trend for females to report higher levels of depressive symptoms from the outset of the study to its conclusion. This study is significant because it tracked depression in adolescents all the way into young adulthood. The hypotheses underlying this study were as follows: (a) depression trajectories are higher in adolescence than they are in adulthood and (b) depression is caused by stress and (c) Stress is related to symptoms of depression among females but not among males. One limitation in the study was that it found that males scored higher on the stress events index than females did, which was contrary to their hypothesis that females would score higher, however the authors have pointed out no importance can be attributed to such a result because it could reflect a bias in the stress events meant to capture the kind of experiences that are more often experienced by males. But in their study, there was support for their hypothesis that stress is related to symptoms of depression in females, but not in males. Hence the results of this study also corroborate the findings in the Korean study (Hyun et al, 2006) which similarly showed that stress does not lead to depression in males, while it does in females. In assessing the reasons for the gender variations in depression, the authors (Meadows et al, 2006) have pointed out that increased exposure to stress for females is not shown to be a valid cause of the gender differences in their study. Rather, they have suggested that the gender differences are caused by the increased vulnerability of females to stressful factors in the environment, although the levels of stress experienced by males and females may be the same. While this study was focused on the importance of parental support in preventing depression, it does identify the gender differences that exist in terms of depression and suggests that females may be more vulnerable to stress that causes depression. An important limiting factor of this study was the lack of inclusion in subjects between the ages of 9 and 13, the age where the move over into adolescence takes place and girls begin to exhibit higher levels of depression, therefore the factors that trigger such gender differences could not be clearly established in the study. However it does appear to suggest that males and females may respond differently to stress, due to a higher level of internalization among females. Other studies have suggested that higher levels of depression in females is caused by low self esteem. In their study of body image among adolescents, Davison and McCabe (2006) have pointed out that low self esteem may be one of the predictive factors of depression. They have mentioned a study that has been conducted by researchers that have shown girls with a negative body image tend to be at an increased risk of experiencing depression.(McCabe, Riciardelli and Banfield, 2001). This study is particularly important, because in the context of the media images which adolescents are constantly bombarded with, their negative body image precipitated by the difference between their own bodies and the media images could be causative in producing depression due to low self esteem that is generated in their minds. Davison and McCabe (2006) administered two Depression Anxiety Stress Scales to the participants, containing 14 items related to depression, which the participants were asked to rate on a Likert type intensity scale. They found that body image was significantly different for boys and girls, F (7, 328) =12.17 with p < .001, suggesting that girls were much more preoccupied with their body image as opposed to boys. However, they did not find an independent relationship between body image and depressive symptoms and have suggested that self esteem may need to be considered as a control variable when examining the relationship between body image and other variables. This study therefore suggests that self esteem may play a role in depression in combination with other factors, since no independent relationship was found between these two variables. However, this may not a direct effect, but rather may be associated with other concomitant factors. Another study that was conducted using rural American Indian Adolescents has examined the psychosocial aspects of body mass and body image among adolescents (Newman et al, 2006). This study pointed out the results of other studies (Cash et al, 2004) which have shown that in both sexes, a negative body image is linked to adverse psychosocial consequences, of which depression is also one. Their findings in the study have supported the position that the development of body image, whether positive or negative occurs within a social and cultural context (Jones 2004). However there appear to be differential influences from the social network that shapes the body image of boys and girls (Gabriel and Garner 1999). The findings that emerged in the study conducted by Newman et al (2006) also support the proposition that the quality of networking and social support is more important in the development of self esteem and lower levels of depression in girls and thereby corroborate the finding in Hyun et al (2006) due to higher rates of internalizing behavior among girls. It therefore appears that girls are more vulnerable and emotionally sensitive to factors in the external environment that are causative factors in stress, which in turn may generate low self esteem and concomitant depression. Since depression is essentially an internalized emotion, it may be more prevalent among girls because they exhibit a higher degree of internalization as compared to boys. Yet another study focused upon depression among adolescents in Canada, using a sample of 17,557 adolescents. The study controlled for several variables, yet there were significant gender differences found between males and females, with females more likely to be depressed, (Afifi et al, 2005). Prevalence of depression among females was higher (3.4% ± 0.27% for males and 9.8% ± 0.44% for females), with significant differences also found among males and females for socio demographic variables and health determinants. This study examined health determinants as factors contributing to adolescent depression and some of these factors were perceived poor health, smoking, alcohol dependence etc, with females demonstrating a higher degree of adverse health determinants as compared to males. This study therefore suggests that health factors may also be causal factors that may lead to depression. Alcohol dependency, etc are detrimental health patterns which may also cause depression in adolescents, by placing them in a context where they may perceive themselves as inferior to others. The notion of the perfect body image as propelled by images in the media could thus further contribute to feelings of inadequacy and negative esteem that may be generated in adolescent girls who show a higher degree of preoccupation with body image than boys do. In the treatment of depression that is caused in females, the study by Sewitch et al (2005) has shown that medication with selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors may be effective in controlling depression. These authors have however identified the dangers involved in prescribing anti depressants without proper psychiatric knowledge. While anti depressant medication may be useful in the case of patients suffering from depression, physicians are prescribing them too freely but such medications need to be prescribed only for moderate and severe depression that may lead to suicidal tendencies and not for mild depression and definitely not in the absence of psychotherapy. Conclusions: On the basis of the above studies, there appears to be some support for the emotional make up of girls being one of the reasons that could explain higher rates of depression among girls. Notably, the higher levels of internalization of emotions and preoccupation with body image are factors that could cause feelings of inferiority and depression in females. Since suicidal attempts are much higher among females, counselors in schools may therefore be able to assist depressed female students better if they are able to understand the internalization of emotions that takes place in females, generated by unfavorable images in the media. While psychosocial and environmental factors may also cause depression, their impact upon girls is higher because of their tendency to internalize feelings. Hence boys may show a better degree of adjustment to stressors in the environment, while girls may need higher levels of empathy, social, parental and peer support in the move to overcome depression. Some of the causal factors that have been identified above in depression in adolescent females are low self esteem and unfavorable perception of their own body images which leads to higher levels of dissatisfaction and depression. Other reasons, apart from the internalization of their emotions, are the differences in the way that girls respond to stress. While boys respond through outward means, girls respond by lapsing into depression. Health determinants may also cause depression. The efficacy of serotonin in the treatment of depression offers the possibility that depression may also be caused by hormonal changes and by administering serotonin and adjusting these hormonal levels, the attendant depression is also mitigated. References: * Afifi, Tracie O, Enns, Murray W, Cox, Brian J and Martens, Patricia J, 2005. “Investigating Health Correlates of Adolescent Depression in Canada.” Canadian Journal of Public Health, 96(6) : 427-432 * Cash, T.F., Morrow, J.A., Hrabosky, J.I. and Perry, A.A., 2004. “How has body image changed? A cross sectional investigation of college women and men from 1983 to 2001.” Journal of Consult. Clinical Psychology, 72(6): 1081-1089. * Gabriel, S and Gardner, W,L, 1999. “Are there “his” and “hers” types of interdependence? The implications of gender differences in collective versus relational interdependence for affect, behavior and cognition.” Journal of Pers.Soc. Psychology, 77: 642-655. * Hyun, Sook Park, Schepp, Karen G, Jang, Eun Hee and Koo, Hyun Young, 2006. “Predictors of Suicidal ideation among high school students by gender in South Korea.”, The Journal of School health, 76(5): 181-189 * Jones, D.C., 2004. “Body image among adolescent girls and boys: A longitudinal study.” Developmental Psychology, 40: 823-835 * Lester, G. & Lester, D. (1971). “Suicide: The gamble with death”. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. * Newman, Denise L, Sontag, Lisa M and Salvato, Rebecca, 2006. “Psychosocial aspects of body mass and body image among rural American Indian Adolescents.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(2): 281-291 * McCabe, M. P., Ricciardelli, L. A., & Banfield, S, 2001. “Body image, strategies to change muscles and weight, and puberty: Do they impact on positive and negative affect among adolescent boys and girls?” Eating Behaviors, 2:129-149. * Meadows, Sarah O, Brown, Scott J and Elder, Glen H, Jr, 2006. “Depressive Symptoms, Stress and Support: Gendered Trajectories from Adolescence to young adulthood.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(1): 93-103 * Sewitch, Maida J, Blais, Regis, Rahme, Elham, Bexton, Brian and Galarneau, Sophie, 2005. “Pharmacologic response to depressive disorders among adolescents.” Psychiatric Services, 56(9): 1089. Read More