You don't bring me anything but down: Adolescent romance and depression

What accounts for the sex difference in depression that emerges during the period of adolescence? We propose that females become more depressed than m ales lit adolescence partly as a consequence of their involvement in romant ic relationships. Using two waves of data from the National Longitudinal St udy of Adolescent Health (N = 8,181), a study which began interviewing resp ondents in 1994, we compare change in levels of depression for adolescents with and without romantic involvement between interviews. Our results sugge st that males and females who become romantically involved between intervie ws experience a larger increase in depression than their counterparts who d o not; however, females experience a larger increase in depression than mal es in response to romantic involvement. Our results suggest that females ' greater vulnerability to romantic involvement explains a large part of the emerging sex difference in depression during adolescence.