Gender differences in coping with depression across the lifespan

Abstract Women are twice as likely as men to report high levels of depressive symptoms and to be diagnosed with a unipolar depressive disorder. I propose that throughout adolescence and adulthood women tend to have a more ruminative and passive style of responding to their own distress than men. This ruminative style of mood management exacerbates and prolongs the periods of distress that arise for women, and interferes with women's ability to overcome the negative events they face. I discuss evidence from experimental and field studies supporting this explanation of the gender differences in depression. I also describe a model for the emergence of gender differences in depression in early adolescence. Depression 3:81–90 (1995). © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.