Abstract

The self-report of depressive symptoms of high school adolescents from two populations were compared. The study aims to find out whether or not; 1) there are significant sex differences between two communities and 2) with regard to the same-sex, there are significant differences between two communities. Nine hundred and twenty eight adolescents from London and 2012 adolescents from six cities from Iran were requested to fill in the Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS). The results showed that significant differences between two sexes in each population. All girls had higher mean scores on all items on DSRS than boys. With regard to the same-sex, significant differences were found between either female or male populations in two communities. The research showed that female adolescents from Iran were significantly experienced more depressive symptoms than the Londoners. Similar results were repeated for the male groups. In conclusion, female adolescents are vulnerable to life stressors and tend to experience more negative feedback and interpretations than boys. Moreover, social roles and limitations, particularly for Iranian adolescents, may influence female adolescents to demonstrate depression symptoms. © 2007 Asian Network for Scientific Information.