Gendered Perspectives On Depression and Antisocial Behaviors

• DOI: 10.1177/0093854810388504
• Published date: 01 January 2011
• Author: Henrkka Weir,Jennifer Wareham,Denise Paquette Boots
• Date: 01 January 2011
• Subject Matter: Articles

GENDERED PERSPECTIVES ON DEPRESSION
AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIORS
An Extension of the Failure Model in Adolescents
DENISE PAQUETTE BOOTS
University of Texas at Dallas
JENNIFER WAREHAM
Wayne State University
HENRIIKKA WEIR
University of Texas at Dallas
Although the association between antisocial behavior and depression has been widely supported, the direction and temporal order
of this relationship are not fully understood in childhood and adolescence. Patterson and Capaldi formulated a failure model to
explain how antisocial behaviors may cause and reinforce depression. Although co-occurring internalizing problems are com-
monly diagnosed in girls, few studies have examined the onset and progression of antisocial behavior and depression in female
adolescents using prospective data that allow for a thorough investigation of the dynamics of this relationship. The present study
extends previous research by examining the relationship between gender, crime, and depressive symptoms in youths participating
in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Overall, there was mixed support for failure theory.
Keywords: depression; delinquency; failure model; PHDCN; gender
Examinations of gender differences in the prevalence and incidence of various forms of
psychopathology have come to the forefront of developmental psychology investiga-
tions of youth trajectories in recent years. A vast body of literature has emerged on the
relationship of adolescent depressive problems and subsequent poor life course outcomes
(see Hammen, 2009, for a review; Crick & Zahn-Waxler, 2003). Whereas depression is
relatively uncommon in childhood for boys and girls (Hankin, Wetter, & Cheely, 2008),
gender differences in onset and incidence become readily apparent in early adolescence
(ages 12 to 14) and intensify in middle adolescence (ages 14 to 16), with girls becoming
twice as likely as their male peers to develop major depressive disorders and other serious
forms of affective problems (see e.g., Lakdawalla, Hankin, & Mermelstein, 2007; Rutter,
Caspi, & Moffitt, 2003; Twenge & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2002). These gender disparities in
depression are sustained across cultures with slight variance and are a worldwide public
health issue, with the World Health Organization citing female depression as the leading
cause of disease disability (Kessler, 2003).
Depression has emerged as one of the leading disorders diagnosed in multiproblem
youths entering the juvenile justice system, and more girls with co-occurring disorders are
AUTHORS’ NOTE: The authors wish to thank the researchers from the Project on Human Development in
Chicago Neighborhoods and the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research for access to these
data. Please direct all correspondence to Denise Paquette Boots, PhD, University of Texas at Dallas, Program in
Criminology, 800 W. Campbell Rd., GR 31, Richardson, TX 75080; e-mail: deniseboots@utdallas.edu.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 38 No. 1, January 2011 63-84
DOI: 10.1177/0093854810388504
© 2011 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology
63

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64 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR
being formally processed than ever before (Teplin et al., 2006). From a criminological
perspective, therefore, understanding the unique etiology of depression and the influence
of gender is critical when considering how depressive problems combine with other risk
factors at various developmental stages to affect offending pathways. Additionally, con-
vincing evidence from longitudinal and prospective studies continues to mount regarding
the link between early onset of individual and family risk factors (i.e., serious mental health
problems) and chronic violent offending that begins in childhood and persists throughout
the life course (see e.g., Moffitt & Caspi, 2001; Tremblay et al., 1992). Increased sensitiv-
ity to childhood and adolescent gender differences is necessary from a public policy stand-
point when developing effective treatments and interventions, especially when considering
that gender disparities in depression rates are maintained largely throughout adulthood
(Hyde, Mezulis, & Abramson, 2008).
In an effort to contribute further to our understanding of how gender moderates the
comorbid depression-delinquency relationship, the present study seeks to extend Patterson
and Capaldi’s “failure theory” (1990) and gauge the direction, magnitude, and causal con-
nections between antisocial behaviors and depression. As explained below, the current
examination hypothesizes that school and family problems mediate the relationship between
delinquency and depression. Consistent with failure theory, a model is proposed whereby
antisocial behaviors lead to mediational pathways of comprehensive failures and conflict
across school, peer, and family domains and subsequently increase the vulnerability for
depression over time. Continuity and reinforcement of negative outcomes are fed through
an interaction of adverse processes that set up a chain reaction of social and academic fail-
ures. With regard to gender, boys and girls are hypothesized to have significant differences
in the magnitude of problem behaviors, with males being more delinquent and girls having
more depressive issues as they age.
Most research to date on antisocial behavior and depression either has been retrospec-
tive, concentrated exclusively on boys, or been gender neutral or has used referred, at-risk,
incarcerated, or adolescent samples (see e.g., Capaldi, 1992; Drabick, Beauchaine, Gadow,
Carlson, & Bromet, 2006; Loeber, Farrington, Stouthamer-Loeber, & Van Kammen, 1998).
The present study addresses a significant gap in the literature by testing a longitudinal
failure model and using a community-based, nonforensic sample of preadolescent boys and
girls. To do so, prospective data were analyzed across three data waves and two age cohorts
(including 9- and 12-year-olds) of youths participating in the Project on Human Development
in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), a large, representative sample of Chicago youths.
The design and scope of available measures collected in the PHDCN provides a rich data
set from which to test a failure model.
We begin with a brief synthesis of the relevant literature concerning the relationship
between gender, depression, and delinquency as well as a summary of “cascade” models of
psychopathology and, in particular, failure theory, because it informs the present study.
GENDER, DEPRESSION, AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIORS
Although the research on gender disparities has been mixed and sometimes contradic-
tory across the extant literature, many studies have consistently reported that co-occurring

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Boots et al. / GENDERED PERSPECTIVES ON DEPRESSION 65
depressive symptoms and delinquency are closely related. One explanation for the differ-
ences in the developmental pathways between depression and delinquency is the “gender
paradox,” which theorizes that the gender group least likely to be disordered will have the
most serious form of mental health problems (Tiet, Wasserman, Loeber, McReynolds, &
Miller, 2001). Although there is substantial evidence that boys are significantly more likely
to display antisocial behaviors than girls (Zoccolillo, 1993), there are growing data that
suggest girls may have more elevated mental health problems across more co-occurring
dimensions than antisocial boys (Kataoka et al., 2001). Thus, when girls do meet the diag-
nostic criteria for antisocial behaviors, their risk of developing other comorbid psychiatric
conditions has been shown to be significantly higher than that of boys (Loeber & Keenan,
1994). Indeed, a recent study by Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, and Angold (2003)
appears to validate this risk, with the authors finding that co-occurring conduct disorder
and depression remained significant for girls, but not for boys, when controlling for other
comorbidity. Similarly, Fagan and Western (2003) analyzed longitudinal data on Australian
adolescents and found that delinquent behaviors increased the probability of depression
and self-harm but only for female participants. Furthermore, Wiesner and Kim (2006)
reported that girls were more likely to exhibit comorbid depressive symptoms and delin-
quent behaviors than were boys (49.5% vs. 25.3%, respectively). Comparable results were
also found with imprisoned Brazilian females, who exhibited higher levels of depression
than males (Andrade, Silva, & Assumpção, 2004), and Wasserman, McReynolds, Ko,
Katz, and Carpenter (2005) reported that female juvenile probationers in Texas had higher
rates of comorbid conduct problems, anxiety, and affective issues than boys.
Not all the literature supports this theory, however. Maughan, Rowe, Messer, Goodman,
and Meltzer (2004) reported that the relationship between conduct problems and depres-
sion remained significant for boys but not for girls after controlling for other disorders.
Similarly, Chen and Simons-Morton (2009), in a school-based sample of youths, reported
that 42.9% of the boys who experienced the highest levels of depression also displayed the
highest levels of conduct problems, as compared to only 10.2% of the girls with the same
comorbid problems. Furthermore, Ingoldsby, Kohl, McMahon, and Lengua (2006) discov-
ered that roughly twice as many boys as girls exhibited co-occurring deviant behaviors and
depressive symptoms in the fifth and seventh grades.
In addition to different...