Self-efficacy pathways to childhood depression.

This prospective research analyzed how different facets of perceived self-efficacy operate in concert within a network of sociocognitiv e influences in childhood depression. Perceived social and academic inefficacy contributed to concurrent and subsequent depression both directly and through their impact on academic achievement, prosocialness, and problem behaviors. In the shorter run, children were depressed over beliefs in their academic inefficacy rather than over their actual academic performances. In the longer run, the impact of a low sense of academic efficacy on depression was mediated through academic achievement, problem behavior, and prior depression. Perceived social inefficacy had a heavier impact on depression in girls than in boys in the longer term. Depression was also more strongly linked over time for girls than for boys. Childhood depression is a matter of major concern because of its prevalence and impairment of functioning. Moreover, it often is not a transient phenomenon that children outgrow. Depressive episodes are recurrent if the contributing factors remain unabated. Early depressive vulnerability is, therefore, predictive of frequency and severity of depression in adulthood (Petersen et al., 1993). Rates of depression vary by ethnicity and culture, but women are generally more prone to depression than men. However, gender differences do not begin to emerge until late adolescence (Culbertson, 1997; Nolen-Hoeksema & Girgus, 1994). Gender differences in susceptibilit y to depression have been attributed to a variety of factors, including sex role socialization, more stressors in women's lives, negatively biased self-systems, use of ruminative rather than active coping strategies, neurobiologic dysfunctions, and sociostructural constraints and impediments (Hammen, 1990; Nolen