Alternative Pathways to Chronic Depressive Symptoms in Young Adults: Gender Differences in Developmental Trajectories

Abstract

Personality and intelligence associated with depressive symptoms in 23-year-olds were evaluated using prospective data from preschool through adolescence. Gender moderated the prospective relations between personality/intelligence and age-23 depressive symptoms. Young men with elevated age-23 General Behavior Inventory (GBI) scores manifested as early as in preschool allocentric behaviors: undersocialization and interpersonal antagonism. This pattern remained highly stable over the following 15 years. Prospective correlates of depressive symptoms in young women--not reliably identified until adolescence--were more likely than in young men to express autocentric concerns: oversocialization and introspective concern with self. These gender differences continued to persist but decreased in strength after puberty. Intellectual competence displayed significantly stronger negative correlations with age-23 GBI scores in males than in females. Findings were discussed in terms of gender differences in the development of chronic depressive symptoms, with special emphasis on equifinality in developmental pathways.