Gender Differences in Depressive Symptoms Revisited: Exploring the Role of Anticipatory Stressors

This study advances the perspective that prevailing structural explanations for women's elevated depressive symptoms relative to men can be complemented by social psychological insights regarding anticipatory stressors or people's worries about the future. Using national survey data (n = 1,810), we find that women are more likely than men to worry about future victimization, discrimination, bereavement, and economic security. Although to a much lesser extent than general anxiety, anticipatory stressors mediate the link between stress exposure and depressive symptoms; however, these relationships do not vary by gender. We do not find evidence that women are more likely than men to experience anticipatory stress due to stress exposure, or that their mental health is more vulnerable to anticipatory stressors. Rather, men's mental health is more sensitive to worries about future victimization, discrimination, and economic precarity. Following adjustment for differences in general anxiety, anticipatory stressors explain merely one-tenth of the gender gap in depressive symptoms.