THE ROLE OF GENDER-RELATED-PROCESSES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEX-DIFFERENCES IN SELF-EVALUATION AND DEPRESSION

This paper examines gender socialization processes during childhood th at may contribute to a higher incidence of depression or depressive sy mptoms in females than in males. It is argued that because of the acti ons of socialization agents and the impact of gender stereotypes on a child's construction of gender identity, girls may exhibit higher leve ls of self-evaluative concerns that increase vulnerability to depressi on. Indeed, a review of the literature on sex differences in self-eval uation suggests that girls may be more susceptible than boys to self-e valuative concerns, particularly as reflected in lower expectations fo r future success, more maladaptive causal attributions for success or failure outcomes, and negative behavioral and evaluative reactions to failure. Moreover, an examination of the literature on sex differences in depressive symptoms leads to questions about previous conclusions that girls do not exhibit higher levels of depressive symptoms prior t o adolescence. Finally, we present some recent original data that supp ort the contention that sex differences in vulnerability to depression may be evident prior to adolescence.