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More prevalent and more severe: gender differences of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents

BACKGROUND: Adolescent depression has become a leading problem around the world, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has remained prevalent and heavily influenced people’s mental health. While gender difference has always been a topic in the field of psychiatry, there are cultural differences across...

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Autores principales: Sun, Yue, Zhong, Yiwen, Sun, Wenzhao, Chu, Lingjun, Long, Jiang, Fan, Xi Wang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10372346/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37521991
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1167234
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author Sun, Yue
Zhong, Yiwen
Sun, Wenzhao
Chu, Lingjun
Long, Jiang
Fan, Xi Wang
author_facet Sun, Yue
Zhong, Yiwen
Sun, Wenzhao
Chu, Lingjun
Long, Jiang
Fan, Xi Wang
author_sort Sun, Yue
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Adolescent depression has become a leading problem around the world, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has remained prevalent and heavily influenced people’s mental health. While gender difference has always been a topic in the field of psychiatry, there are cultural differences across the world that must be taken into account. The current study is examining gender differences in symptoms of Chinese adolescents with depression. METHODS: The sample was obtained from a total of 574 adolescent patients (172 males and 402 females) diagnosed with depression following the DSM-IV/ICD-10 diagnostic criteria; patients who also had other severe mental or physical illnesses were excluded. The ages of participants ranged from 10 to 19 years. Additionally, independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to examine differences in symptoms between different gender and age groups. The LPA was used to examine whether females and males were having different patterns of symptoms. RESULTS: Our analysis showed that compared to males, females exhibited higher rates of depression and more severe depressive symptoms across age groups. Likewise, the analysis also revealed an earlier onset of depression among Chinese adolescents compared to that in Western countries in previous studies. Finally, the LPA showed that mild to moderate depression was predominant in male patients, while severe depression was predominant in female patients. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the gender differences in the prevalence and severity of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. The current study highlighted the importance of gender equality and developing gender-friendly interventions in maintaining the overall mental health of adolescents in China.
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spelling pubmed-103723462023-07-28 More prevalent and more severe: gender differences of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents Sun, Yue Zhong, Yiwen Sun, Wenzhao Chu, Lingjun Long, Jiang Fan, Xi Wang Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Adolescent depression has become a leading problem around the world, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has remained prevalent and heavily influenced people’s mental health. While gender difference has always been a topic in the field of psychiatry, there are cultural differences across the world that must be taken into account. The current study is examining gender differences in symptoms of Chinese adolescents with depression. METHODS: The sample was obtained from a total of 574 adolescent patients (172 males and 402 females) diagnosed with depression following the DSM-IV/ICD-10 diagnostic criteria; patients who also had other severe mental or physical illnesses were excluded. The ages of participants ranged from 10 to 19 years. Additionally, independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to examine differences in symptoms between different gender and age groups. The LPA was used to examine whether females and males were having different patterns of symptoms. RESULTS: Our analysis showed that compared to males, females exhibited higher rates of depression and more severe depressive symptoms across age groups. Likewise, the analysis also revealed an earlier onset of depression among Chinese adolescents compared to that in Western countries in previous studies. Finally, the LPA showed that mild to moderate depression was predominant in male patients, while severe depression was predominant in female patients. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the gender differences in the prevalence and severity of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. The current study highlighted the importance of gender equality and developing gender-friendly interventions in maintaining the overall mental health of adolescents in China. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10372346/ /pubmed/37521991 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1167234 Text en Copyright © 2023 Sun, Zhong, Sun, Chu, Long and Fan. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Sun, Yue
Zhong, Yiwen
Sun, Wenzhao
Chu, Lingjun
Long, Jiang
Fan, Xi Wang
More prevalent and more severe: gender differences of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents
title More prevalent and more severe: gender differences of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents
title_full More prevalent and more severe: gender differences of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents
title_fullStr More prevalent and more severe: gender differences of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents
title_full_unstemmed More prevalent and more severe: gender differences of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents
title_short More prevalent and more severe: gender differences of depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents
title_sort more prevalent and more severe: gender differences of depressive symptoms in chinese adolescents
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10372346/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37521991
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1167234
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