Gender, Life Strains, and Depression

The present study reports comparative male-female vulnerability to several stressful life circumstances that have been implicated in the development of depression. My analysis, which draws on data from a 1978 survey of 1,026 adults in central Wisconsin who were administered the Psychiatric Evaluation Research Instrument (PERI) Depression Scale, is based on a structural modeling approach that controls for the confounding of dysphoric mood and other forms of distress with a depressive syndrome. Findings show that women are more likely than men to suffer hardships associated with the absence of a spouse, social isolation, financial difficulties, and chronic health problems. However, none of these hardships has a significantly greater impact on depressive syndrome levels for women than for men.