Gender, age and depressive symptoms in adolescence

The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship of gender and age with depressive symptomatology in adolescents. The participants were 1,212 adolescents, from 1st (53.9%) and 2nd (46.1%) year in Compulsory Secondary Education, belonging to seven schools in the Region of Murcia (Spain), and 104 parents. The percentage of adolescents with clinically significant depressive symptoms is similar to that found in other studies in Spain. The girls presented greater depressive symptomatology. The gender difference was greater in the group with high depressive symptomatology. Depressive symptomatology increased with age, consistent with previous research. The difference was highlighted in adolescent self-reports but not in parent reports. The main conclusion is that the development of depression prevention programs should take gender and age into consideration.