Depressive symptoms in intellectual disability: does gender play a role?
Women with ID report more depression, especially when abuse, loneliness, or unemployment is present, so screen them first and dig deeper.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lunsky (2003) ran a survey asking adults with intellectual disability about depressive feelings.
They also asked about loneliness, stress, abuse history, family support, and work status.
What they found
Women with ID reported more depressive symptoms than men.
The same life stressors hurt both groups, but the link was stronger for women.
How this fits with other research
Hurley (2008) later showed that sad mood, crying, and loss of interest are the clearest signs to watch for in any adult with ID.
Fullana et al. (2007) found that negative self-talk and low social support predict depression across genders, giving you more questions to ask.
Heiman (2001) saw the same gender pattern, but in students, not adults — the two studies look opposite only because they sampled different ages.
Myrbakk et al. (2008) add that when you see screaming or self-injury, think depression too, especially if the client cannot describe feelings.
Why it matters
During intake, ask women with ID about abuse, loneliness, and job loss first. For men, still ask, but weigh the answers a little less. Pair this with D’s red-flag list: if either gender shows sad face, crying, or no joy, move to a full mood screen. These five quick probes take two minutes and catch cases you used to miss.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Gender issues remain largely unaddressed in the dual diagnosis arena, even in the area of depression where there is a 2:1 female to male ratio in the general population. This paper argues that women with intellectual disability (ID) report higher levels of depressive symptoms than men with ID and that risk factors for depression identified for women in the general population are relevant to this group. METHOD: Findings are based on structured interviews with 99 men and women with ID, with corroborative information provided from caregivers and casebook reviews. RESULTS: Overall, women reported higher levels of depression than men. Individuals with higher depression scores were more lonely and had higher stress levels than individuals with lower scores. Women with higher depression scores were more likely to report coming from abusive situations, to have poor social support from family and to be unemployed when compared to women with lower scores, but similar differences were not found when comparing men with higher and lower depression scores. CONCLUSION: Men and women who report experiencing these psychosocial correlates of depression should be a target group for future prevention efforts, taking gender specific concerns into consideration.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2003 · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2788.2003.00516.x