IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v121y2015i2p437-454.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Time Period and Birth Cohort Differences in Depressive Symptoms in the U.S., 1982–2013

Author

Listed:
  • Jean Twenge

Abstract

Across four surveys (N = 6.9 million), Americans reported substantially higher levels of depressive symptoms, particularly somatic symptoms, in the 2000s–2010s compared to the 1980s–1990s. High school students in the 2010s (vs. the 1980s) reported more somatic symptoms (e.g., trouble sleeping, thinking, and remembering; shortness of breath) and were twice as likely to have seen a professional for mental issues. College students in recent years (vs. the 1980s) were more likely to report feeling overwhelmed and to believe they were below average in mental and physical health, but were less likely to say they felt depressed. Total Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scores were higher among adults in 2000 (vs. 1988), especially somatic symptoms. Teens displayed less suicidal ideation in 2011 versus 1991 and were slightly less likely to commit suicide. Thus, more subtle symptoms of depression became more prevalent even as some overt indicators of depression became less prevalent. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Jean Twenge, 2015. "Time Period and Birth Cohort Differences in Depressive Symptoms in the U.S., 1982–2013," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 437-454, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:121:y:2015:i:2:p:437-454
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-014-0647-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11205-014-0647-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-014-0647-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colin D Mathers & Dejan Loncar, 2006. "Projections of Global Mortality and Burden of Disease from 2002 to 2030," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(11), pages 1-20, November.
    2. Eckersley, Richard & Dear, Keith, 2002. "Cultural correlates of youth suicide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 1891-1904, December.
    3. Herbst, Chris M., 2011. "‘Paradoxical’ decline? Another look at the relative reduction in female happiness," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 773-788.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Victoria Blom & Lena V. Kallings & Björn Ekblom & Peter Wallin & Gunnar Andersson & Erik Hemmingsson & Örjan Ekblom & Jonas Söderling & Elin Ekblom Bak, 2020. "Self-Reported General Health, Overall and Work-Related Stress, Loneliness, and Sleeping Problems in 335,625 Swedish Adults from 2000 to 2016," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-11, January.
    2. Thomas Potrebny & Nora Wiium & Anne Haugstvedt & Ragnhild Sollesnes & Torbjørn Torsheim & Bente Wold & Frode Thuen, 2019. "Health complaints among adolescents in Norway: A twenty-year perspective on trends," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, January.
    3. McFarland, Michael J. & Wagner, Brandon G., 2015. "Does a college education reduce depressive symptoms in American young adults?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 75-84.
    4. Lazarevic, Vanja & Crovetto, Flavia & Shapiro, Alyson F., 2018. "Challenges of Latino young men and women: Examining the role of gender in discrimination and mental health," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 173-179.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frida Thorsen & Carl Antonson & Jan Sundquist & Kristina Sundquist, 2016. "Perceived Stress and Psychiatric Symptoms in Swedish Upper Secondary School Students," Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 6(2), pages 183-183, November.
    2. Jia Lu & Shabana Jamani & Joseph Benjamen & Eric Agbata & Olivia Magwood & Kevin Pottie, 2020. "Global Mental Health and Services for Migrants in Primary Care Settings in High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-28, November.
    3. Matthijs van den Berg & Filip Smit & Theo Vos & Pieter H M van Baal, 2011. "Cost-Effectiveness of Opportunistic Screening and Minimal Contact Psychotherapy to Prevent Depression in Primary Care Patients," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(8), pages 1-7, August.
    4. Ide, Hiroo & Mollahaliloglu, Salih, 2009. "How firms set prices for medical materials: A multi-country study," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 73-78, September.
    5. Eldon Spackman & Stewart Richmond & Mark Sculpher & Martin Bland & Stephen Brealey & Rhian Gabe & Ann Hopton & Ada Keding & Harriet Lansdown & Sara Perren & David Torgerson & Ian Watt & Hugh MacPherso, 2014. "Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Acupuncture, Counselling and Usual Care in Treating Patients with Depression: The Results of the ACUDep Trial," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-12, November.
    6. Brodeur, Abel & Connolly, Marie, 2013. "Do higher child care subsidies improve parental well-being? Evidence from Quebec's family policies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-16.
    7. Peele, Morgan & Wolf, Sharon, 2020. "Predictors of anxiety and depressive symptoms among teachers in Ghana: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    8. Carsten Hinrichsen & Vibeke Jenny Koushede & Katrine Rich Madsen & Line Nielsen & Nanna Gram Ahlmark & Ziggi Ivan Santini & Charlotte Meilstrup, 2020. "Implementing Mental Health Promotion Initiatives—Process Evaluation of the ABCs of Mental Health in Denmark," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-26, August.
    9. Gianni Tognoni & Alejandro Macchia, 2020. "Health as a Human Right: A Fake News in a Post-human World?," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 63(2), pages 270-276, December.
    10. Renske Kok & Mauricio Avendano & Teresa Bago d’Uva & Johan Mackenbach, 2012. "Can Reporting Heterogeneity Explain Differences in Depressive Symptoms Across Europe?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 105(2), pages 191-210, January.
    11. Liang Choon Wang, 2016. "The effect of high-stakes testing on suicidal ideation of teenagers with reference-dependent preferences," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 345-364, April.
    12. Emmanuel Peprah & Elisabet Caler & Anya Snyder & Fassil Ketema, 2020. "Deconstructing Syndemics: The Many Layers of Clustering Multi-Comorbidities in People Living with HIV," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-7, June.
    13. Qiumei Xu & Fangfen Yuan & Xuemei Shen & Hui Wen & Wei Li & Bei Cheng & Jing Wu, 2014. "Polymorphisms of C242T and A640G in CYBA Gene and the Risk of Coronary Artery Disease: A Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, January.
    14. Hoehun Ha & Wei Tu, 2018. "An Ecological Study on the Spatially Varying Relationship between County-Level Suicide Rates and Altitude in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, April.
    15. Eduardo Martínez-Martínez & María Luisa Zaragoza & Elmer Solano & Brenda Figueroa & Patricia Zúñiga & Juan P Laclette, 2012. "Health Research Funding in Mexico: The Need for a Long-Term Agenda," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(12), pages 1-11, December.
    16. Zarish Noreen & Christopher A. Loffredo & Attya Bhatti & Jyothirmai J. Simhadri & Gail Nunlee-Bland & Thomas Nnanabu & Peter John & Jahangir S. Khan & Somiranjan Ghosh, 2020. "Transcriptional Profiling and Biological Pathway(s) Analysis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in a Pakistani Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-20, August.
    17. Joern Birkmann & Susan Cutter & Dale Rothman & Torsten Welle & Matthias Garschagen & Bas Ruijven & Brian O’Neill & Benjamin Preston & Stefan Kienberger & Omar Cardona & Tiodora Siagian & Deny Hidayati, 2015. "Scenarios for vulnerability: opportunities and constraints in the context of climate change and disaster risk," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 53-68, November.
    18. Kimberley E Wever & Carlijn R Hooijmans & Niels P Riksen & Thomas B Sterenborg & Emily S Sena & Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga & Michiel C Warlé, 2015. "Determinants of the Efficacy of Cardiac Ischemic Preconditioning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Animal Studies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, November.
    19. Junyan Teng & Yanping Wei & Fengming Su & Zhiping Guo & Jing-Quan Zhong, 2015. "Evaluating of Physiological Chemical Levels in Blood to Assess the Risk of Morbidity and Mortality of Ischemic Cardiovascular Disease," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-11, September.
    20. G. Guindon, 2014. "The impact of tobacco prices on smoking onset in Vietnam: duration analyses of retrospective data," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(1), pages 19-39, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:121:y:2015:i:2:p:437-454. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.