Stress Equal, but Different, for Girls and Boys

May 21, 1999

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)--Adolescent boys and girls experience similar amounts of stress, but different factors appear to be causing the stress - with a girl's experience more likely to lead to depression.

These results conflict with popular myth, notes study co-author Dr. Karen Rudolph of the University of Illinois in Champaign.

"Conventional wisdom says that girls experience more stress, but our evidence says otherwise. They just experience stress in a different domain than boys do," Rudolph said in an interview with Reuters Health.

Girls - but not boys - experienced higher levels of interpersonal stress, the sort encountered in relating to their families and peers, according to the report in the May/June issue of Child Development.

"In particular, adolescent girls were especially likely to generate stress in parent-child and peer relationships," Rudolph and co-author Dr. Constance Hammen of the University of California, Los Angeles, explain.

Boys, on the other hand, experience higher levels of stress from events apart from their relationships with others - such as school performance and moving to another home. Like girls, boys created some of the stress themselves.

"Adolescent boys were especially likely to generate stress in noninterpersonal contexts regardless of (where it happened)," the authors write in their report.

The study, one of the first to evaluate stress in this way, included 88 boys and girls, average age of 13 years, who were referred to a mental health clinic for various behavioral or emotional problems.

The investigators also found that "stress was associated with depressive symptoms in girls but not in boys; in particular, depression was most strongly associated with interpersonal conflict," the type of stress experienced more severely by girls than boys.

Adolescents can be taught to cope with the stress in their lives, Rudolph commented.

"Kids need to learn interpersonal skills and other coping skills to deal with these stresses. They need to be able to change the ways they react to everyday events," she explained.

Stress Disorder Linked to Anorexia, Bulimia

August 19, 1998

NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) -- More than half of patients with serious eating disorders also exhibit the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), researchers report.

PTSD symptoms "may be common among women with eating disorders, especially among those severe enough to require residential or inpatient treatment," conclude investigators at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Their findings are published in the current issue of the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

PTSD is an abnormal or extreme psychological response to trauma that results in long-term depression, anxiety, flashbacks and avoidance behaviors. The illness was first brought to US public attention when soldiers returning from the Vietnam War exhibited such symptoms.

The Texas researchers conducted psychological tests aimed at detecting PTSD among a group of 294 women diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or nonspecific eating disorders.

"Of this sample, 74% reported having experienced at least one traumatic event" that might trigger PTSD, the authors say, "and 52% reported symptomatology consistent with the diagnosis of PTSD."

Closer examination revealed that a PTSD diagnosis did not seem to be associated with either the severity or type of eating disorder. PTSD symptoms were predicted by other patient diagnoses, however, such as depression, anxiety and dissociation (a feeling of being disconnected from oneself).

The Texas study results agree with those of prior research. In fact, one 1994 study concluded that anorexics especially resistant to treatment were more likely to suffer from PTSD than those who responded favorably. The authors of that study speculated that these "high-risk" patients might require PTSD therapy before their anorexia could be brought under control.

 

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