Elsevier

Psychiatry Research

Volume 126, Issue 2, 30 April 2004, Pages 135-142
Psychiatry Research

Gender differences in depression: the role of personality factors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2003.12.024Get rights and content

Abstract

The goal of the study was to determine the association between gender and the Big Five personality factors, and to identify the role of personality factors in the association between gender and depression among adults in the United States. Data were drawn from the Midlife Development in the United States Survey (N=3032). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to examine gender differences on the Big Five personality factors (i.e. agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion, and conscientiousness). Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the relation between gender and depression, and to test whether this association is moderated by neuroticism. Levels of neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness were significantly higher among females than among males; in contrast, level of openness to experience was significantly higher among males. Female gender was associated with increased odds of experiencing depression. Results showed that neuroticism played a significant contributory role in the relationship between being female and major depression, though the role of gender remained statistically significant after adjustment. These data suggest that gender differences in personality factors, specifically neuroticism, may play a key role in the well-documented gender difference in depression. Our findings indicate that neuroticism may moderate the association between female gender and increased risk of depression among adults. These findings require replication using longitudinal data.

Introduction

The higher prevalence of major depression among females than males has been consistently observed among adults in the general population (Weissman and Klerman, 1977, Lynn and Martin, 1997, Cyranowski et al., 2000, Kendler et al., 2001, Nolen-Hoeksema, in press). A number of potential biological, psychological, genetic, and social explanations have been formulated to explain this association, as have integrative theories of depression (Veijola et al., 1998). Several theorists, for example, have hypothesized that higher rates among women of poverty, sexual harassment, child abuse, and chronic strain due to limitations in social power and status contribute to the higher rates of depression among women than men (Nolen-Hoeksema, in press). From a more psychological perspective, two variables have been implicated in contributing to the gender difference in depression: interpersonal orientation (Gladstone et al., 1997) and rumination (Lewinsohn et al., 1997). Researchers have suggested that the higher levels of these constructs among women are associated with their higher rates of depression. Although each of these explanations has some empirical support in laboratory, clinical, or epidemiologic studies, the mechanism underlying the gender difference in depression remains unclear (Gladstone et al., 1997, Lewinsohn et al., 1997, Veijola et al., 1998, Cyranowski et al., 2000, Ormel et al., 2001, Nolen-Hoeksema, in press).

Recent formulations concerning the gender difference in the prevalence of depression have focused on the potential role of personality factors, or traits, in contributing to the development of this disorder. Specifically, higher levels of neuroticism have been found to be associated both with increased risk of depression (Ormel et al., 2001) and with increased odds of psychiatric comorbidity among individuals with anxiety and depressive disorders (Widiger and Trull, 1992, Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 1999). Given previous data suggesting that neuroticism is heritable to some degree (Martin and Jardine, 1986, Tellegen et al., 1988), several investigators have examined whether the genetic link between neuroticism and major depression may differ by gender (Katz and McGuffin, 1987, Fanous et al., 2002). In general, findings do not support a sex difference in this link. In contrast, higher levels of conscientiousness and extraversion have been found to be associated with reduced risk of depression and other mental disorders (Tellegen et al., 1988). In a study of individuals in 37 countries, females were found to have higher levels than males of neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience (Katz and McGuffin, 1987). It is not known, however, whether these gender differences in the distribution of personality factors influence the prevalence of depression among adults in the population. While recent overviews and theory concerning the gender differences in depression have focused on social and hormonal changes, elevated affiliative needs among females at puberty, and heightened depressogenic reactivity to interpersonal life events, they have not specifically examined gender differences in personality traits as a possible mechanism that might help to explain the gender difference in depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, in press). If there are, in fact, gender differences in personality factors in the general population, especially in neuroticism, these differences may contribute to, or may help to explain, the differential risk of major depression for males and females. While previous studies have found gender differences in personality traits in selected samples (Katz and McGuffin, 1987, Maier et al., 1992, Miller et al., 1999), investigators have not examined the possible relation of gender differences in the ‘Big Five’ personality factors to sex differences in depression. Extraversion (Miller et al., 1999) and conscientiousness (Friedman et al., 1995) have been found to predict a range of health outcomes; the potential role of these factors in contributing to gender differences in depression, however, has not been examined.

The goals of the current study are two-fold. First, we use the Big Five factor model to examine the relation between gender and personality factors among adults in the general population. Second, we examine the role of neuroticism in the association between gender and major depression. Based on previous investigations documenting significantly higher rates of depression among females than males, we hypothesized that females would be characterized by higher levels of neuroticism than males. We also predicted that gender differences in neuroticism would account for a significant proportion of the gender difference in major depression.

Section snippets

Sample

The Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) Survey is a nationally representative survey of 3032 persons between 25 and 74 years of age in the non-institutionalized civilian population of the 48 coterminous United States (Brim et al., 1996, Marmot et al., 1998, Kessler et al., 2001). The MIDUS Survey was carried out by the John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation Network on Successful Midlife Development between January 1995 and January 1996. All respondents completed a 30-min telephone

Association between gender and mental disorder

Table 1 presents the 12-month prevalence figures for major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks, and alcohol dependence separately for females and males. As predicted, female gender was associated with a significantly higher prevalence of major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic attacks than was male gender. In contrast, the prevalence of alcohol dependence was significantly higher among males than among females.

Association between gender and personality factors

Table 2 presents the levels of the Big Five

Discussion

Despite a number of biological, psychological, and social theoretical explanations that have been formulated in attempts to account for the gender differences in depression, the mechanism underlying this association remains unclear (Weissman and Klerman, 1977, Kessler et al., 1994, Bebbington, 1996, Lynn and Martin, 1997, Lewinsohn et al., 1998, Cyranowski et al., 2000, Kendler et al., 2001, Nolen-Hoeksema, in press). In the present study, we hypothesized that differences in personality

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