Gender differences in cognitive diathesis-stress domain match: implications for differential pathways to depression.

The frequency of cognitive diathesis-stress match was compared in a sample of depressed women and men to investigate hypotheses positing gender differences in the relation of cognitive diathesis-stress factors to depression. Depressed women were more likely to have experienced a match between a cognitive diathesis and a preonset negative stressor compared with depressed men. Comparisons of women and men on the cognitive and stress variables singly yielded differences in stress variables but not in cognitive variables. Depressed women were more likely to have experienced a negative severe event before the onset of depression and had a greater frequency of negative interpersonal events. Results supported the hypothesis of gender differences in pathways to depression.