Theory and research on sex differences in adjustment focus largely on parental, societal, and biological influences. However, it also is important to consider how peers contribute to girls' and boys' development. This article provides a critical review of sex differences in several peer relationship processes, including behavioral and social-cognitive styles, stress and coping, and relationship provisions. The authors present a speculative peer-socialization model based on this review in which the implications of these sex differences for girls' and boys' emotional and behavioral development are considered. Central to this model is the idea that sex-linked relationship processes have costs and benefits for girls' and boys' adjustment. Finally, the authors present recent research testing certain model components and propose approaches for testing understudied aspects of the model.

A Review of Sex Differences in Peer Relationship Processes: Potential Trade-offs for the Emotional and Behavioral Development of Girls and Boys

We used meta-analysis to examine recent studies of sex differences in coping. Women were more likely than men to engage in most coping strategies. The strongest effects showed that women were more likely to use strategies that involved verbal expressions to others or the self—to seek emotional support, ruminate about problems, and use positive self-talk. These sex differences were consistent across studies, supporting a dispositional level hypothesis. Other sex differences were dependent on the nature of the stressor, supporting role constraint theory. We also examined whether stressor appraisal (i.e., women's tendencies to appraise stressors as more severe) accountedfor sex differences in coping. We found some support for this idea. To circumvent this issue, we provide some data on relative coping. These data demonstrate that sex differences in relative coping are more in line with our intuitions about the differences in the ways men and women cope with distress.

Sex Differences in Coping Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review and an Examination of Relative Coping

Descriptive epidemiological studies are reviewed, showing that the female preponderance in depression begins to emerge around age 13. A developmentally sensitive, elaborated cognitive vulnerability-transactional stress model of depression is proposed to explain the "big fact" of the emergence of the gender difference in depression. The elaborated causal chain posits that negative events contribute to initial elevations of general negative affect. Generic cognitive vulnerability factors then moderate the likelihood that the initial negative affect will progress to full-blown depression. Increases in depression can lead transactionally to more self-generated dependent negative life events and thus begin the causal chain again. Evidence is reviewed providing preliminary support for the model as an explanation for the development of the gender difference in depression during adolescence.

Development of gender differences in depression: an elaborated cognitive vulnerability-transactional stress theory.

This research addresses a new construct, co-rumination Co-rumination refers to extensively discussing and revisiting problems, speculating about problems, and focusing on negative feelings Friendship research indicates that self-disclosure leads to close relationships; however, coping research indicates that dwelling on negative topics leads to emotional difficulties Co-rumination is a single construct that integrates both perspectives and is proposed to be related both to positive friendship adjustment and problematic emotional adjustment Third-, fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade participants (N = 608) responded to questionnaires, including a new measure of co-rumination Co-rumination was related to high-quality, close friendships and aspects of depression and anxiety Girls reported co-ruminating more than did boys, which helped to account for girls' more positive friendship adjustment and greater internalizing symptoms Other analyses addressed whether co-rumination and the related constructs of self-disclosure and rumination had different relations with friendship and emotional adjustment

Co–Rumination in the Friendships of Girls and Boys

In adulthood, twice as many women as men are depressed, a pattern that holds in most nations. In childhood, girls are no more depressed than boys, but more girls than boys are depressed by ages 13 to 15. Although many influences on this emergent gender difference in depression have been proposed, a truly integrated, developmental model is lacking. The authors propose a model that integrates affective (emotional reactivity), biological (genetic vulnerability, pubertal hormones, pubertal timing and development) and cognitive (cognitive style, objectified body consciousness, rumination) factors as vulnerabilities to depression that, in interaction with negative life events, heighten girls' rates of depression beginning in adolescence and account for the gender difference in depression.

https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/rev/115/2/291.pdf

The ABCs of depression: integrating affective, biological, and cognitive models to explain the emergence of the gender difference in depression.

Recent literature reviews of the antecedents of adolescent depression propose that rumination is one of the risk factors that has been associated with higher rates of depression among girls. Rumina...

Early Adolescent Gender Differences in the Use of Ruminative and Distracting Coping Strategies

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Early Adolescent Gender Differences in the Use of Ruminative and Distracting Coping Strategies