Gender differences in functioning, behavior problems, and depressive symptoms in adolescents seeking help over three years

Adolescent mental health and gender differences in symptom presentation have been an essential topic in the last decade. We aimed to investigate differences in functioning, behavioral problems, and depressive symptoms for adolescents who were seeking help from community-based mental health service over the last three years. Secondary data from 3009 10—17-year-old adolescents (52% female), collected initially through standardized clinical assessments at intake, were analyzed using an Aligned Rank Transformation (ART) ANOVA, controlling for age where appropriate.The results revealed significant gender differences in functioning, F (1, 3003) = 53.52, p < 0.001, and depression, F (1, 3003) = 329.22, p < 0.001, with females reporting more depressive symptoms and lower functioning than males. However, these differences remained stable over time, with non-significant interaction effects for both functioning, p = 0.585, and depression, p = 0.744. Additionally, functioning improved significantly over time for both genders, F (2, 3003) = 3.90, p = 0.020. For behavioral problems, no significant gender differences or changes over time were found. Our findings add to research on gender-specific trends in adolescent mental health, highlighting stability of trends in functioning and depression and the overall improvement in functioning. Potential explanations for these findings are discussed, including cultural differences in symptom presentation, study design limitations, and other contextual factors.