Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies and Depressive Symptoms: Gender's Moderating Effect

Depression is one of the most prevalent psychological conditions among adolescents. The first major depressive episode tends to occur around 15 years old. Between 13 and 15 years old gender differences begin to emerge with girls presenting higher prevalence of depressive symptoms than boys. Problems on emotion regulation and constantly relying on maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies have been pointed as a risk factor for depression and also as a factor that explains gender differences in depressive symptoms, as girls tend to use more maladaptive strategies than boys, such as rumination, self-blaming and catastrophizing.This study aimed to test the moderating effect of gender in the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms. 319 adolescents, 13 to 15 years old, participated. Self-reported measures were used to access depressive symptoms (CDI) and cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERQ). The moderating effect of gender was found in the relationship between positive reappraisal and depressive symptoms, suggesting the importance of enhancing positive reappraisal when facing negative life events, especially for girls.