Gender Trajectories of Adolescent Depressed Mood: The Dynamic Role of Stressors and Resources

This research examines how gender variation in the trajectory of stressors and resources during high school shapes gender variation in the trajectory of depressed mood. Boys have steeper gains in depressed mood than girls during high school. Adolescents with increasing levels of school or work strain and declining levels of parental support or mastery were more likely to have an increasing trajectory of depressed mood; the effect of chronic work was stronger for boys than girls. Steeper declines in parental support and gains in work strain among boys relative to girls explain boy’s faster rate of increase in depressed mood during high school