Journal Critique: Depression Study on Gender and Adolescents

This journal critique analyzes a research study investigating the relationship between gender and the risk of depression among adolescents and young adults. The study utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2006) and employed SPSS for data analysis. Th...Read More

Running head: JOURNAL CRITIQUE ON DEPRESSION
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Journal Critique on Depression
Institution’s Name
Date

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Introduction
The study below is research to establish whether gender is a factor contributing to the risk
of depression among adolescent and also among young adults. Latest scientific literature
stipulates that depression has the potential to influence someone’s development and growth,
family relationship and in the extreme case, become fatal (Heller, 2012). The study borrows data
from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, between 2005-2006 to show the
relation between the gender and adolescent.
Hypothesis
The research hypothesis is the position that gender is a factor of one having depression
among adolescents and young adults.
Methodology
The research opts to use data from National Health and Nutritional Examination, which is
a survey carried out from 2005-2006. The study involves adults and children and is carried out
annually to determine the depression status of this group. Precisely, the survey for this study
analyzed young adults and adolescents from ages 13-21. The sample population used is of 2199
participants. To analyze data, SPSS is used and is important to determine the hypothesis (Moreh,
& O'Lawrence, 2016). Lastly, there is an elaborate measure to analyze data, that is, is descriptive
statistics by use of frequency, means, frequencies and many others.
Results and discussion
To determine the results, application of SPSS is useful. Male’s participants represent 48.6
percent which translates to 1,068 while girls take the remaining 51.4 percent which is 1, 131 and

JOURNAL CRITIQUE ON DEPRESSION 3
this is from the ages of 13-21. At age 13, to determine male and female enrolment in school, 131
males while 144 females. Going to age 14, we have 126 males to 136 females. At age 15, we
have 142 males to 156 females. On the other hand, at age 16, we have 157 males against 142
females. Going forward at age 17, we have 134 males and 146 females. While at age 18, it
results in having 152 males enrolling in school against 164 that represents girls. At 19, males
stand at 136 while females stand at 132. Males at 20 and 21 represent 46 and 44 respectively
against 56 and 58 at these ages in females respectively (Parent et al., 2014).
Also, important to take note is that, even though both gender reports to having symptoms
of depression, it is evident as a matter of percentage, the number of females is higher than that of
males. To be precise, an estimate of 16.52 percent of males in comparison to 19.60 percent of
that of females admits having some days suffering from depression. On the other hand, 3.29 of
males compared to females reports to experience depression more than half in a day (Reynolds,
& Johnston, 2013). Lastly, nearly 2.03 reports to be having symptoms of depression at a rate of
every day for two weeks as compared to 2.14 of females who report of the same during the same
duration. As of the hypothesis, it suggests that gender is a risk factor causing depression with
females showing a greater risk than males. The use of Chi-square in this experiment is to further
determine the relation of gender and depression (Taylor, 2011). Looking at the Pearson chi-
squared value that represents 515, the df of the value 21 is crucial as it supports the hypothesis of
the study.
The results demonstrate increasing evidence that male adolescents and adults are less
likely than their females’ counterparts to fall victims of depression. In addition to that, looking at
the previous stud, which stipulates that at 14, incidences of depression in females is twice that of
boys, it now becoming clear that depression increases as adolescents reach puberty (World

JOURNAL CRITIQUE ON DEPRESSION 4
Health Organization, 2012). In particular, this study tries to relate previous studies conform to
the current ones about gender and depression. Additionally, the study notes that hormonal
changes in females can be a factor that is causing depression in females. The study notes that
there is indeed a relationship between gender and depression among adolescents.
Conclusion
There are various ways that this study is important. On this that is clear is that it informs
the society as a whole that adolescents tend to face depression due to their physical development
and therefore, need support to come up with the situation to avoid risk such as suicide. In
addition to that, the study has enlightened me to debunk the misconception that adolescents do
not experience depression but only a condition of the old adults. The study appears to be
successful in many ways, but I find the sample size being too small to represent such a large
group. Future research can try to increase the sample size and consider looking at various
socioeconomic factors that may also have a bearing on depression among adolescents, gender
relation to the same and among young adults.

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References
Heller, K. (2012). Depression in Teens and Children. Psych Central.
Moreh, S., & O'Lawrence, H. (2016). Common Risk Factors Associated with Adolescent and
Young Adult Depression. Journal of Health and Human Services
Administration, 39(2), 283.
Parent, J., Forehand, R., Dunbar, J. P., Watson, K. H., Reising, M. M., Seehuus, M., & Compas,
B. E. (2014). Parent and adolescent reports of parenting when a parent has a
history of depression: Associations with observations of parenting. Journal of
abnormal child psychology, 42(2), 173- 183.
Reynolds, W. M., & Johnston, H. F. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of depression in children and
adolescents. Springer Science & Business Media.
Taylor, O. D. (2011). Adolescent depression as a contributing factor to the development of
substance use disorders. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment,
21(6), 696-710.
World Health Organization. (2012). Depression. (Fact Sheet No. 369). Geneva, Switzerland.
Retrieved from http://www.who.int/entity/mediacentre/factsheets/fs
369/en/index.html