Gender differences in emotional reactivity of depressed and at-risk preschoolers: implications for gender specific manifestations of preschool depression.

We investigated whether differences in positive and negative emotional reactivity could be found in depressed preschoolers and preschoolers at risk for later internalizing symptoms relative to nondepressed/low risk comparison groups. Observational measures of emotional reactivity, used to derive a score of the balance between anger and sadness, were obtained and analyzed in independent samples. One study utilized cross-sectional data from preschoolers (M age = 4.6 years) with a current depressive syndrome and two nondepressed comparison groups. The other study utilized longitudinal data that assessed emotional reactivity at preschool age (M age = 4.5 years) and later mental health symptoms during the transition to primary school, allowing a retrospective determination of risk. Depressed and at-risk boys displayed more anger than sadness in contrast to girls in the same groups and in contrast to no disorder/low-risk controls. This finding was detected in depressed and "at risk for internalizing" boys who were not comorbid for externalizing problems.