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Gender, anxiety-depressivity and self-image among adolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Bruce Kirkcaldy ,
Georg Siefen  and
Adrian Furnham
Bruce Kirkcaldy*
Affiliation:
International Centre for the Study of Occupational and Mental Health, Haydnstr. 61, 40593Düsseldorf, Germany
Georg Siefen
Affiliation:
Westfalia Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Halterner Str. 525, 45770Marl-Sinsen, Germany
Adrian Furnham
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK
*
*E-mail address: bruce.kirkcaldy@t-online.de
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Abstract

Two groups of non- and “quasi-depressives”—the latter corresponding to high depression scorers—German adolescents were examined to determine the effect of gender and depression in predicting physical ailments, self-image and attitudes towards parents. Quasi-depressive adolescents displayed higher frequencies of physical complaints across all five subscales of the Giessen physical complaints inventory compared to the non-depressive counterparts. Females generally reported more ailments (exhaustion, gastrointestinal, circulatory, and colds) than males. In contrast to males who showed scarce difference between depressives and non-depressives, female depressives exhibited substantially higher gastrointestinal ailments than non-depressive females. Depressives emerged as displaying inferior self-images, lower paternal acceptance, and somewhat higher maternal rejection, compared to non-depressives. Female adolescents displayed lower self-image, lower paternal acceptance (but not maternal rejection/acceptance), lower mathematical competency, and higher linguistic competency, when compared to male adolescents.

Keywords

DepressionAnxietySelf-imageSocial problem behaviourGenderAdolescents
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , March 2003 , pp. 50 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS 2002

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