COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Researchers have long known that women generally show higher levels of depression than men.
Now, a new study has found that this gender gap grows through adulthood, with women’s levels of depression steadily increasing relative to men.
The depression gender gap is evident at age 18 and increases to about age 55 or 60, said John Mirowsky, author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State University.
The results suggest that a major reason for the growing gap has to do with women’s unequal status compared to men -- the fact that they get less pay and authority at work, for example, and face a greater burden of housework and childcare at home.
“The extent of inequality that women face compared to men grows during adulthood, and this seems to increase the gender gap in depression,” Mirowsky said.
The study, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, involved an analysis of three separate surveys.
Mirowsky analyzed the 1990 U.S. Survey of Work, Family, and Well-Being, which involved interviews with 2,031 adults across the country aged 18 to 90. The second data set was the 1985 Illinois Survey of Well-Being, which included 809 people aged 18 to 85 in the Chicago area. The final data set was the 1988-89 National Survey of Families and Households. Mirowsky analyzed data from 9,762 people aged 19 to 98 who were interviewed twice in six years.
Findings from the three surveys showed that, for both men and women, levels of depression drop from the beginning of adulthood until somewhere in the mid-40s to late 50s, when depression scores start rising again.
However, for men, depression levels drop more quickly in early adulthood than they do for women. And, later in life, depression levels start climbing sooner for women than they do for men. The result is an increasing gender gap in depression.
The gender gap begins to narrow a bit when people reach their 70s, but Mirowsky said he isn’t sure why.
In order to explain the growing gap, Mirowsky further analyzed some of the data from the U.S. Survey of Work, Family and Well-Being. He found that about half of the gender gap disappeared when he adjusted for sex differences in employment status, housework, and responsibility for child care, among other factors. In other words, the gender gap was cut in half when the inequality that women face was statistically “eliminated.” This suggests that the gender gap grows “as women face their unequal status in society,” Mirowsky said.
Mirowsky said he was surprised to find in the study that the depression gap has not lessened in recent years, despite the gains women have made in society.
“Given the enormous changes in women’s lives over the past three or four generations, it is surprising and disturbing to see no clear indication that the gender gap in depression is vanishing,” he said.
Contact: John Mirowsky, (614) 292-2419; Mirowsky.1@osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu