Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Background: Depression is a common and debilitating mental health problem in adolescence that is associated with increased risk for social and educational impairments, physical health problems, and suicide. At least one in eight adolescents suffer from depression, with girls at two-fold risk of experiencing depression relative to boys. Psychosocial stressors within the family environment (e.g., parental stress and low family income) are known risk factors for depression and increased cortisol secretion, an index of biological stress reactivity. Although it has often been suggested, it remains unclear whether differences in stress reactivity explain the link between stressful life experiences and depressive symptoms, especially among pre-adolescent girls. Method: Diurnal salivary cortisol levels were examined in a community sample of low-income, French-speaking children between the ages of 9 and 13 years of age (52 girls; 38 boys). The mothers of these children completed measures assessing parental stress, and both mothers and teachers reported on youth's depressive symptoms. Results: Results from structural equation modeling analyses revealed sex specific pathways for the development of depression. For boys, high parental stress was directly related to increased depressive symptoms, whereas for girls, high parental stress was associated with elevated cortisol levels, which were in turn related to increased depressive symptoms. Lower socioeconomic status was related to higher depressive symptoms in girls, but not in boys. Conclusions: These findings may indicate that pre-adolescent girls from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely than boys to have dysregulated cortisol secretion under stress, and this stress reactivity may make them more vulnerable to developing depression during the stressful period of adolescence. Results are discussed in terms of sex differences in depression and implications for prevention and intervention.