On fatalism, pessimism, and depressive symptoms among Mexican-American andother adolescents attending an obstetrics-gynecology clinic

There is growing evidence that Mexican-American adolescents may be at incre ased risk for depressive symptoms. We sought to replicate and explain this result in a study of adolescent girls attending an obstetric-gynecologic cl inic. Three hundred and four girls of diverse ethnic backgrounds completed measures of depressive symptoms, negative attributional style, and locus of control. Consistent with predictions, we found that Mexican-American adole scent girls reported more depressive symptoms than adolescent girls from ot her ethnic backgrounds, and that Mexican-American adolescent girls displaye d more negative cognitive styles than girls from other ethnic backgrounds. Depression differences appeared to be partly explained by differences in ne gative cognitive style. Implications of the results for a theory of increas ed Mexican-American adolescent depression, and for applied work, were discu ssed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.