Gender differences in the expression of depressive symptoms in middle adolescents: an extension of earlier findings.

Subjects in the present study were 153 French Canadian high school students (98 females, 55 males) participating in the second phase of a larger longitudinal study (Baron & Groulx, 1990; Baron, Régimbald, & Groulx, 1991). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether, consistent with the findings obtained at the first phase of the study, females maintain higher mean scores than do males on all items discriminating between groups on the basis of gender. Separate discriminant function analyses of both the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); items were consistent, with lower mean scores for males on all interpretable items. Results are discussed with respect to variability in the instruments, and in view of previous research aimed at examining the expression of depressive symptoms in this and other adolescent samples.