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Sex-related differences in frequency and perception of stressful life events during adolescence

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Abstract

Aim

Stressful life events and individual stress experience are important risk factors for the development of physical and mental disorders. One of the modulating factors determining interindividual differences in stress experience is the person’s gender. In the current study, we investigated sex-related differences in the frequency and perception of stressful life events during adolescence, a period characterized by particularly high stress levels.

Subject and methods

We examined 1,657 14-year-old adolescents who were recruited as part of the IMAGEN study, a European multicenter research project on mental well-being of young people. For the detection of stressful life events, we used the Life Events Questionnaire, a highly valid instrument for testing common stressful events during adolescence.

Results

Although boys and girls did not differ significantly regarding the total amount of stressful life events, girls reported more stressful events in the familial and body-related areas, whereas boys experienced more conflicts with superiors and independence-marking events. As regards valence, girls reported greater psychological distress compared to boys; however, in all significant results, the effect sizes were only small to moderate.

Conclusion

While previous research highlighted severe stressors in adult samples, we investigated for the first time adolescents with a broader scope of stressful events. The observed differences in the stress experience may contribute to explain the sex-dependent variations in the incidence of stress-related disorders.

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Acknowledgements

This work received support from the following sources: the European Union-funded FP6 Integrated Project IMAGEN (Reinforcement-related behaviour in normal brain function and psychopathology) (LSHM-CT- 2007–037286), the FP7 projects IMAGEMEND (602450; IMAging GEnetics for MENtal Disorders) and MATRICS (603016), the Innovative Medicine Initiative Project EU-AIMS (115300–2), a Medical Research Council Programme Grant “Developmental pathways into adolescent substance abuse” (93558), the Swedish funding agency FORMAS, the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF grants 01GS08152; 01EV0711; eMED SysAlc01ZX1311A; Forschungsnetz AERIAL), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG grants SM 80/7-1, SM 80/7-2, SFB 940/1), the National Institutes of Health, U.S.A. (Axon, Testosterone and Mental Health during Adolescence; RO1 MH085772-01A1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Charité Mitte, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin, Germany

    Bianca Raffaelli, Nicole Strache, Caroline Parchetka, Andreas Heinz & Henrik Walter

  2. INSERM, UMR 1000, Research unit Imaging and Psychiatry, CEA, DSV, I2BM-Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, Orsay, University Paris-Sud 11, Orsay; University Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France; and Psychiatry Department 91G16, Orsay Hospital, Orsay, France

    Eric Artiges

  3. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Square J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany

    Tobias Banaschewski & Luise Poustka

  4. Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Trinity College Institute of Neurosciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Arun Bokde & Rob Whelan

  5. University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Haus S10, Martinistr. 52, Hamburg, Germany

    Uli Bromberg & Christian Buechel

  6. Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

    Anna Cattrell, Patricia Conrod & Gunter Schumann

  7. Medical Research Council – Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, De Crespigny Park, London, United Kingdom

    Anna Cattrell & Gunter Schumann

  8. Department of Psychiatry, Universite de Montreal, CHU Ste Justine Hospital, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Patricia Conrod

  9. Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Square J5, Mannheim, Germany

    Herta Flor & Angela Heinrich

  10. Neurospin, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, CEA-Saclay Center, Paris, France

    Vincent Frouin & Dimitri Papadopoulos

  11. Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

    Hugh Garavan

  12. Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Abbestr. 2-12, Berlin, Germany

    Bernd Ittermann

  13. Department of Psychiatry and Neuroimaging Center, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Sarah Jurk, Eva Mennigen, Michael N. Smolka & Nora C. Vetter

  14. INSERM, UMR 1000, Research unit Imaging and Psychiatry, CEA, DSV, I2BM-Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, Orsay; Faculté de médecine, Université Paris-Sud, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre; and Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France

    Herve Lemaitre

  15. INSERM, UMR 1000, Research unit Imaging and Psychiatry, CEA, DSV, I2BM-Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, Orsay, University Paris-Sud 11, Orsay; and University Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France

    Jean-Luc Martinot

  16. INSERM, UMR 1000, Research unit Imaging and Psychiatry, CEA, DSV, I2BM-Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, Orsay; University Paris-Sud 11, Orsay; University Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris; and AP-HP, Department of Adolescent Psychopathology and Medicine, Maison de Solenn, Cochin Hospital, Paris, France

    Marie-Laure Paillère Martinot

  17. Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest and Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M6A 2E1, Canada

    Tomáš Paus

  18. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Martinistrasse 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Juergen Gallinat

Authors
  1. Bianca Raffaelli
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  2. Nicole Strache
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  3. Caroline Parchetka
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  4. Eric Artiges
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  7. Uli Bromberg
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  8. Christian Buechel
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  9. Anna Cattrell
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  10. Patricia Conrod
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  11. Herta Flor
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  12. Vincent Frouin
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  13. Hugh Garavan
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  14. Angela Heinrich
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  15. Andreas Heinz
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  16. Bernd Ittermann
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  17. Sarah Jurk
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  18. Herve Lemaitre
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  19. Jean-Luc Martinot
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  20. Eva Mennigen
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  21. Marie-Laure Paillère Martinot
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  22. Dimitri Papadopoulos
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  23. Tomáš Paus
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  24. Luise Poustka
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  25. Michael N. Smolka
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  26. Nora C. Vetter
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  27. Henrik Walter
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  28. Rob Whelan
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  29. Gunter Schumann
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Correspondence to Bianca Raffaelli.

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Raffaelli, B., Strache, N., Parchetka, C. et al. Sex-related differences in frequency and perception of stressful life events during adolescence. J Public Health 24, 365–374 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-016-0731-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-016-0731-x

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