Dr. Hankin, I benefited a lot from your remarkable lecture.
Just now you mentioned teenage girls seem more stressed out
and depressed than teenage boys.
I'm wondering, why?
My recent study sheds some light.
What study? Could you tell me about it?
In my research, 538 teenagers were asked
to record their "worst event" of the day
in their diaries every day for a week,
at three different time points --- the study launch,
6 and 12 months later.
How about the "worst events" they recorded?
I'm interested to know about that.
The "worst events" include getting kicked out of school,
failing a quiz, arguing with a parent,
getting mad at a girlfriend or boyfriend, and other problems.
Then what do you do with the data you gathered?
We evaluated how stressful the events were and classified them
as interpersonal stress or achievement stress.
But how do you know how stressful the events were?
Actually, besides describing the "worst event",
students said what made it so bad,
and what they did in response.
What about the findings of your research?
According to my study,
girls reported more interpersonal stressors
while the boys had more achievement stressors.
In an average week,
girls experienced twice
as many interpersonal stressors as the boys did.
However, the boys
experienced 0.24 achievement stressors each week,
while the girls reported just 0.16.
Dr. Hankin, let's get back to my original question.
I'm afraid I'm not quite clear why your study
reveals teen girls have tougher time than teen boys.
I wonder if you could explain that in more detail.
Ok. Researchers suggest interpersonal stress
is much more complicated to handle than achievement stress.
Girls experience more interpersonal stress,
so they naturally exhibit more depressive symptoms than boys do.
Could you fill me in a bit on their response to those pressures?
We found that the girls were more adversely affected.
They were getting a double hit
and reacted with more depression for the same stressor.
Would you mind giving me some examples?
For example,
if there is a romantic fight between a boy and a girl,
on average,
a girl may be interpreting it in a catastrophic way
and respond with more depression.
However, a boy will distract himself
by playing basketball or doing some other activity.
Dr. Hankin, as a father with two daughters,
can I ask you a little bit more about take-home messages?
Yeah. Remember to be available
and supportive emotionally for your girls.
For most girls, an argument with a friend may be viewed
as the end of a friendship.
You or your wife may step in and suggest
how to heal the relationship.
Got it. Thanks a lot, Dr. Hankin.
You're welcome.