Do Girls with Depressive Symptoms Exhibit More Physical Aggression Than Boys? A Cross Sectional Study In A National Adolescent Sample

Below:   Effect of gender on the relationship between the presence of depressive symptoms and physical aggressive behaviors. *p < 0.05 Results from logistic regression models with the presence of depressive symptoms as the dependant variable and physical aggressive behaviors as the independent variable. Models were adjusted on age, alcohol use, cannabis use, repeat school years, sexual abuse, mother’s educational level, family situation and the presence of other antisocial behaviors

After adjusting for confounding variables, the odds-ratio between depressive symptoms and physical aggressive behaviors was around 1.4. This relationship was stronger for girls than for boys in presence of clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms, but did not differ between the genders in the case of subthreshold levels of depressive symptoms.

Girls with severe depressive symptoms were more likely to present physical aggressive behaviors than boys. Future studies will be needed to explore the role of irritability in these differences.

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