Sex and Age Differences in Depression: A Quantitative Synthesis of Published Research

1987 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. Jorm

It is commonly believed that depression is more common in females than in males. A quantitative synthesis of published research showed, however, that the sex difference is age specific. There is little sex difference in either childhood or advanced old age, but a notable sex difference in middle life. This sex difference appears because rates for females rise sharply from childhood to adulthood and then decline somewhat in old age. By contrast, rates for males show a small rise in early adulthood but are otherwise fairly stable throughout life. The age-specific nature of these sex differences may be explainable in terms of differences in social roles at various ages.

1987 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. Jorm

The personality trait of neuroticism is thought to be an important risk factor for depression. To ascertain the possible role of neuroticism in producing sex differences in depression, a meta-analysis was carried out on published studies reporting sex- and age-specific norms for neuroticism inventories. A general sex difference was found, with females having higher scores. However, the sex difference was greater in young and middle-aged adults than in children or the very elderly. This age trend in sex differences for neuroticism is similar in form to that previously reported for depression, except that the sex difference for depression completely disappeared in the very young and very old, but the sex difference in neuroticism did not.


1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gagindra Persaud

This study examined the effects of sex and age on scores on a matrices test among university and college students aged 17 to 51 yr. Sex differences in mean scores were nonsignificant. The general decline with age was linear and negative, significantly so for women ( n = 132), not for men ( n = 74). Significant decrements occurred from the age of 26 yr. upwards for women only. The findings suggest that loss of intellectual capacity on the Raven's Matrices can be attributed to age.


2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Rennels ◽  
Andrew J. Cummings

When face processing studies find sex differences, male infants appear better at face recognition than female infants, whereas female adults appear better at face recognition than male adults. Both female infants and adults, however, discriminate emotional expressions better than males. To investigate if sex and age differences in facial scanning might account for these processing discrepancies, 3–4-month-olds, 9–10-month-olds, and adults viewed faces presented individually while an eye tracker recorded eye movements. Regardless of age, males shifted fixations between internal and external facial features more than females, suggesting more holistic processing. Females shifted fixations between internal facial features more than males, suggesting more second-order relational processing, which may explain females’ emotion discrimination advantage. Older male infants made more fixations than older female infants. Female adults made more fixations for shorter fixation durations than male adults. Male infants and female adults’ greater encoding of facial information may explain their face recognition advantage.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Hiraishi ◽  
Ayano Saito ◽  
Maki Nishio ◽  
Nayu Fujii ◽  
Takato Mori

Since Buss (1989) initiated research in the field, sex differences in preferences for long-term mates have been extensively studied in evolutionary psychology. Numerous studies have reported robust sex differences such as: 1) a preference for a younger mate is stronger in men than women, 2) a preference for an older mate is stronger in women than men, 3) women value traits associated with resource acquisition, such as economic status and educational attainment, more highly than do men, and 4) men value physical attractiveness more highly than women. However, our replication of Bech-Sørensen & Pollet (2016) did not to show a significant sex difference in the preference for physical attractiveness among a Japanese sample while the other sex differences (age differences and resource acquisition abilities) were significant (Study 1). We designed study 2 to test if the non-significance reflected changes in the Japanese society or was an artifact of the item used to measure the preference for physical attractiveness. In this pre-reregistration, we will first report the results of study 1 and then propose the plan for study 2. (Preprint of the accepted manuscript can be found at https://psyarxiv.com/9hkbq).


2013 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Chopik ◽  
Robin S. Edelstein ◽  
R. Chris Fraley

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Eugenia Ibáñez-Zamacona ◽  
Alaitz Poveda ◽  
Esther Rebato

AbstractThe aim of this research was to analyse variation in body image perception and satisfaction by age, sex and nutritional status in an adult sample from the Basque Country, Spain. A case-control study was performed for 227 women and 178 men aged 18–70 years. Stunkard’s silhouettes were used to evaluate Current Body Image (CBI) and Ideal Body Image (IBI), as well as dissatisfaction and inconsistency scores. Nutritional status was assessed following the WHO criteria for BMI in an adult population. The sample was divided into four groups based on sex and age (early adulthood <45 years, and middle/older adulthood ≥45 years). The Mann–Whitney U test was employed to evaluate sex and age differences, and the Gamma coefficient to assess the association between body image variables and nutritional status. Significant age differences in CBI (p<0.05) and sex differences in IBI (p<0.001) were detected. Both variables showed a positive association with BMI (p<0.01), which indicates that BMI is a biological characteristic related to body image satisfaction and influences participants’ perception of themselves. Dissatisfaction scores showed that both sex and age differences (p<0.05) were negatively associated with BMI (p<0.001). Only participants ≥45 years presented sex differences in inconsistency scores (p<0.05); this variable was associated with BMI in women (p<0.01). Preferences in body image showed sexual dimorphism, with women preferring thinner bodies than men – a pattern observed in many Western populations – linked in part to sociocultural pressures. Women were more dissatisfied with their bodies than men; a higher dissatisfaction was observed in older relative to younger participants. The results confirm the association between nutritional status and body size perception and satisfaction, but also the relationship between nutritional status and the reliability with which women can classify themselves; in men, this relationship was not as clear.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans IJzerman ◽  
Irene Blanken ◽  
Mark Brandt ◽  
Hanneke Oerlemans ◽  
Marloes van den Hoogenhof ◽  
...  

Shackelford and colleagues (2004) found that men, compared to women, are more distressed by sexual than emotional infidelity, and this sex difference continued into older age. We conducted four high-powered replications (total N = 1,952) of this effect and found different results. A meta-analysis of original and replication studies finds the sex difference in younger samples (though with a smaller effect size), and no effect among older samples. Furthermore, we found attitude toward uncommitted sex to be a mediator (although not consistently in the same direction) between participant sex and relative distress between sexual and emotional infidelity. We hypothesize that the discrepancies between the original and replication studies may be due to changing cultural attitudes about sex across time. Confirming this speculative interpretation requires further investigation.This paper was published in Social Psychology:Ijzerman, H., Blanken, I., Brandt, M. J., Oerlemans, H., van den Hoogenhof, M., Franken, S., &amp; Oerlemans, M. (2014). Sex differences in distress from infidelity in early adulthood and in later life: A replication and meta-analysis of Shackelford et al.(2004). Social Psychology, 45(3), 202-208.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Juel Ahrenfeldt ◽  
Martina Otavova ◽  
Kaare Christensen ◽  
Rune Lindahl-Jacobsen

Abstract Aim: To examine the magnitude of sex differences in survival from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Europe across age and countries. We hypothesise that men have higher mortality than women at any given age, but that sex differences will decrease with age as only the strongest men survive to older ages.Methods: We used population data from Institut National D’Études Démographiques on cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 from February to June 2020 in 10 European countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, England & Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. For each country, we calculated cumulative mortality rates stratified by age and sex and corresponding relative risks for men vs. women.Results: The relative risk of dying from COVID-19 was higher for men than for women in almost all age groups in all countries. The overall relative risk ranged from 1.11 (95% CI 1.01-1.23) in Portugal to 1.54 (95% CI 1.49-1.58) in France. In most countries, sex differences increased until ages 60-69 years, but decreased thereafter with the smallest sex difference at ages 80+.Conclusions: Despite variability in data collection and time coverage among countries, we illustrate an overall similar pattern of sex differences in COVID-19 mortality in Europe.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Hiraishi ◽  
Ayano Saito ◽  
Maki Nishio ◽  
Nayu Fujii ◽  
Takato Mori

Since Buss (1989) initiated research in the field, sex differences in preferences for long-term mates have been extensively studied in evolutionary psychology. Numerous studies have reported robust sex differences such as: 1) a preference for a younger mate is stronger in men than women, 2) a preference for an older mate is stronger in women than men, 3) women value traits associated with resource acquisition, such as economic status and educational attainment, more highly than do men, and 4) men value physical attractiveness more highly than women. However, our replication of Bech-Sørensen &amp; Pollet (2016) did not to show a significant sex difference in the preference for physical attractiveness among a Japanese sample while the other sex differences (age differences and resource acquisition abilities) were significant (Study 1). We designed study 2 to test if the non-significance was an artifact of the item used to measure the preference for physical attractiveness. Study 2 showed that the sex differences were not statistically significant. In addition, the effect of sex was significantly smaller than the pre-determined smallest effect size of interest (SESOI). #Pre-registration of the study can be found at https://psyarxiv.com/acy9z


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