TY - JOUR
T1 - Depression in later life
T2 - A closer look at the gender gap
AU - Acciai, Francesco
AU - Hardy, Melissa
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge assistance from the Population Research Institute (PRI) at The Pennsylvania State University. This paper uses data from SHARE Wave 4. The SHARE data collection has been primarily funded by the European Commission through FP5 ( QLK6-CT-2001-00360 ), FP6 (SHARE-I3: RII-CT-2006-062193 , COMPARE: CIT5-CT-2005-028857 , SHARELIFE: CIT4-CT-2006-028812 ) and FP7 (SHARE-PREP: N° 211909 , SHARE-LEAP: N° 227822 , SHARE M4: N° 261982 ). Additional funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research , the U.S. National Institute on Aging ( U01_AG09740-13S2 , P01_AG005842 , P01_AG08291 , P30_AG12815 , R21_AG025169 , Y1-AG-4553-01 , IAG_BSR06-11 , OGHA_04-064 ) and from various national funding sources is gratefully acknowledged (see www.share-project.org ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2017/11
Y1 - 2017/11
N2 - Gender differences in depressive symptoms have been extensively documented, with women reporting a higher number of depressive symptoms than men. However, studies offer different explanations for why such a gap exists. The goal of the current paper is to analyze how much of the observed gender gap in depression may be attributed to (1) compositional versus (2) reporting differences or (3) differences in reactivity to adversities. We contribute to this literature by testing, net of compositional differences, whether the relationship between reporting behavior and depressive symptoms is gendered and whether accounting for the possibility of gender-specific reactivity alters the structure of the gender gap at older ages. Our results show that the observed gender gap in depression (1) only partially derives from compositional differences; (2) is not an artifact of a gender-specific reporting style; and remarkably (3) men appear more sensitive to adversities.
AB - Gender differences in depressive symptoms have been extensively documented, with women reporting a higher number of depressive symptoms than men. However, studies offer different explanations for why such a gap exists. The goal of the current paper is to analyze how much of the observed gender gap in depression may be attributed to (1) compositional versus (2) reporting differences or (3) differences in reactivity to adversities. We contribute to this literature by testing, net of compositional differences, whether the relationship between reporting behavior and depressive symptoms is gendered and whether accounting for the possibility of gender-specific reactivity alters the structure of the gender gap at older ages. Our results show that the observed gender gap in depression (1) only partially derives from compositional differences; (2) is not an artifact of a gender-specific reporting style; and remarkably (3) men appear more sensitive to adversities.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028325013&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85028325013&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.08.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.08.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 29108595
AN - SCOPUS:85028325013
SN - 0049-089X
VL - 68
SP - 163
EP - 175
JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
ER -
