By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 25, 2008

A new report shows that adolescent girls who had a serious school failure by the 12th grade were significantly more likely to have suffered a serious bout of depression at the age of 21 than girls who did not have these problems.

Researchers defined the school problems as being expelled, suspended or dropping out.

The research, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health showed that girls who had early conduct problems in elementary school were also at increased risk for depression in early adulthood.

However, the University of Washington study did not show any link for boys between academic, behavior or social problems and depression at age 21.

“For girls there are broader implications of school failure,” said Carolyn McCarty, a UW research associate professor of pediatrics and lead author of the study.

“We already know that it leads to more poverty, higher rates of being on public assistance and lower rates of job stability. And now this study shows it is having mental health implications for girls.”

The study showed that girls who were expelled from school were more than twice as likely to suffer depression – 44 percent compared to 20 percent of girls who were not expelled. Thirty-three percent of the girls who dropped out of school later became depressed compared to 19 percent who were not dropouts. Twenty-eight percent of the girls who were suspended later suffered depression versus 19 percent of girls who weren’t suspended.

Overall, 45 percent of the girls and 68 percent of the boys in the study experienced a major school failure, but McCarty said these rates were not surprising since the participants in the study came from high-crime neighborhoods. However, the depression rate was higher among girls, 22 percent versus 17 percent for the boys.

“This gender paradox shows that while school failure is more atypical for girls it appears to have more severe consequences when it does occur,” said McCarty.

“One reason may be that school failure stigmatizes girls more strongly or is harder for them to overcome. We do know that girls with conduct problems, such as school failure, tend to have long-term problems with cascading effects.”

She said the study’s overall gender rates of depression are comparable to previous studies, although the 17 percent rate for boys was somewhat high.

Data for the study was drawn from the UW’s ongoing Seattle Social Development Research Project that was launched in 1985 and has been tracking 808 people since they were in the fifth grade. Students were drawn from 18 Seattle schools in high-crime neighborhoods to study the development of positive and antisocial behaviors.

Participants were almost equally divided by gender and identified themselves as white (46 percent), black (24 percent), Asian-American (21 percent), Native A...