Preliminary examination of sex differences in depressive symptoms among adolescent psychiatric inpatients: The role of anxious symptoms and generalized negative affect

Assessed the emerging view that generalized negative affect and anxious sym ptoms are important in understanding sex differences in depressive symptoms . Sixty-three adolescent psychiatric inpatients (32 boys, 31 girls), ages 1 2 to 16 (M = 13.87, SD = 1.36), completed measures of positive and negative affect and anxious and depressive symptoms. Results demonstrated, as predi cted, that depressive and anxious symptoms were more highly associated in a dolescent girls than boys. Furthermore, girls with depressive symptoms were more likely to have comorbid anxious symptoms than boys with depressive sy mptoms. Sex differences were not found for adolescents with specific depres sive symptoms and specific anxious symptoms (i.e., the absence of comorbidi ty), Our findings supported the possibility that sex differences in pure fo rms of depression are overestimated and that comorbid internalizing conditi ons may be more prevalent in adolescent girls than boys.