ABSTRACT
The origins of depression among women are of considerable concern because of the greater prevalence of depression among women than men, and because depression is the most common diagnosis of mental disorder in the general population. Weissman and Myers (1978), for example, report current point prevalence rates of 6% for major and minor depressive disorders. Epidemiologic surveys using depressive symptom scales such as the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale used in this study have generally reported considerably higher prevalence rates (e.g., Comstock & Helsing, 1976; Frerichs, Aneshensel, & Clark, 1981). Although estimates of the sex differential in depression also vary according to the criteria used to define a case, there is abundant evidence of an overall female excess. Weissman and Klerman, in their exhaustive 1977 review, report female to male ratios of depression ranging from 1.6:1 through 2:1 for community and patient populations in the United States between 1945 and 1970. For the general community population studied in this investigation, the initial prevalence estimates yielded a sex ratio of 1.8:1 (Frerichs et al., 1981). The factors related to the occurrence of depression among these women after a period of one year are examined here with particular focus on the interplay of those factors that have been the central focus of attempts to explain the sex differential–strains surrounding occupational and familial roles.
