Internalizing symptoms in adolescents: Gender differences in vulnerabilityto parental distress and discord

This longitudinal study investigated gender differences in the relation bet ween (1) internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety reported by adole scents, and (2) emotional distress and marital discord reported by their mo thers. Structural equation modeling was used to track the relationship betw een these variables in a community sample of 116 males and 101 females and their parents across three data intervals roughly corresponding to early ad olescence (M = 11,4), mid-adolescence (M = 13,7), and late adolescence/ ear ly adulthood (M = 19,2). For early adolescents, there were no gender differ ences in the relation between internalizing symptoms and parental distress and discord. Gender differences did emerge, however, by midadolescence, at which time parental disturbances were significantly associated with interna lizing symptoms in adolescent females but not adolescent males. The emergen ce of this risk factor during this developmental phase may help account for frequent findings that place adolescent females at higher risk for anxiety and depression than adolescent males.