Age, Race, and Gender Differences in Depressive Symptoms: A Lifespan Developmental Investigation

Abstract

This study considered depressive symptoms among a normative sample of 1,900 children, adolescents, and adults (950 males and 950 females) divided across four age-levels to investigate the developmental progression of depressive symptoms by age, race/ethnicity, and gender. The national normative sample of the Clinical Assessment of Depression (CAD) was used in this study, which provided a large, reliably assessed, representative sample for group comparisons. CAD age, gender, race/ethnicity analyses revealed that depressive symptoms appear to be experienced at fairly uniform levels across the age-span, by both genders, and among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. Specific differences within age, race, and gender groups and interactions are discussed.