Gender Differences in Attributions for Negative and Positive Events, and Symptoms of Depression

Teorija beznadnosti pretpostavlja da su negativne atribucije događaja snažan prediktor depresivnih simptoma, osobito specifične kombinacije simptoma koju autori nazivaju depresija beznadnosti. Pokušavajući objasniti spolne razlike u stopama depresivnosti neka su istraživanja pokazala da žene imaju manje adaptivne atribucijske obrasce te doživljavaju više negativnih događaja. Cilj je ovoga istraživanja bio provjeriti spolne razlike u razinama općih simptoma depresivnosti i simptoma depresije beznadnosti te utvrditi mogu li se te razlike bolje objasniti razlikama u frekvenciji svakodnevnih stresnih događaja, samopoštovanju i atribucijama negativnih i pozitivnih događaja ili razlikama u načinu na koji ti čimbenici djeluju na depresivne simptome u adolescenata. Istraživanje je provedeno na 419 učenika sedmih i osmih razreda osnovne škole te prvih, drugih i trećih razreda srednje škole. Rezultati nisu pokazali spolne razlike u zastupljenosti simptoma depresivnosti, depresije beznadnosti, frekvenciji negativnih događaja, ni internalnosti i globalnosti uzroka negativnih događaja. Pokazalo se da djevojke imaju stabilnije, internalnije i globalnije atribucije pozitivnih događaja nego mladići te da mladići imaju stabilnije atribucije negativnih događaja. Također, rezultati su pokazali da u djevojaka stabilnost uzroka negativnih događaja predviđa više razine depresije beznadnosti samostalno dok u mladića samo u interakciji sa stresom. Nadalje, pokazalo se da u mladića objašnjavanje negativnih i pozitivnih događaja internalnim uzrocima predviđa niže razine simptoma depresije beznadnosti.The hopelessness theory of depression posits that negative attributions of life events act as strong predictors of depressive symptoms, especially of a specific constellation of symptoms, called hopelessness depression. In trying to account for the differences in depression rates, some studies have shown that women have less adaptive patterns of attributions and experience more negative life events. The purpose of this study was to examine whether boys and girls differ in rates of general depressive symptoms and symptoms of hopelessness depression, and whether those differences are better explained by differences in negative life events, self-esteem and attributions for negative and positive events, or by differences in their effect on depressive symptoms in adolescents. The sample consisted of 419 students attending 7th and 8th grade of primary school, and 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade of high school. Results did not show differences in general depression symptoms, hopelessness depression symptoms, negative life events, or internality and globality of causes of negative events. However, results did show that girls have more stable, internal and global attributions for positive events, and that boys have more stable attributions for negative events. In addition, results demonstrated that stable explanations of negative events predict higher levels of hopelessness depression independently in girls, while only their interaction with stress predicts hopelessness depression in boys. Results also showed that internal explanations of both negative and positive events predict lower levels of hopelessness depression in boys