Relationship between gender role attitudes and depression among adolescents / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the relationship between gender role attitudes (GRA) and adolescent depression to provide evidence for the promotion of mental health among adolescents.@*Methods@#A total of 1 549 students from grades 6 to 8 in three public middle schools in Jing an District of Shanghai were selected by stratified cluster sampling. The baseline and follow up surveys were conducted by anonymous electronic questionnaire on mobile tablets from November to December in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The GRA Scale and the Depression Scale were used to collect subjects attitudes towards traditional role assignment and power inequality between men and woman and depression in family and sexual relationships. The multivariate Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) model was adopted to examine the relationship between GRA and depression.@*Results@#The mean score of the GRA Scale was (2.52±0.83) and (2.29±0.86), while the score of Depression Scale was (15.92±5.08) and (16.48±5.29), in the baseline and follow up survey, respectively ( P <0.05). After controlling the covariates of age, bullied experience, body image, social cohesion, etc., the multivariate GEE model indicated traditional GRA was significantly associated with a higher risk of depression among both boys and girls ( β boys =0.38, β girls =0.41, P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#Traditional GRA may increase the risk of depression in adolescents, suggesting that cultivating a positive and equal GRA among this population group may help to prevent depression.