The relationship between internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescence: Does gender make a difference? (original) (raw)

Externalizing problems arising during adolescence are usually associated with the experience of negative feelings. During this developmental stage, internalizing symptoms can also develop, and they occur with a higher prevalence in girls. Parents can be very important allies and useful alternatives in the identification of several aspects of internalizing/externalizing problems in childhood and adolescence. The main purpose of the current research was to obtain a deeper understanding of the relationships between externalizing and internalizing symptoms in adolescence, including analyses of the influence of gender on those relationships. The sample consisted of 1590 adolescents, between 12 and 16 years old, who completed the CDI to assess depressive symptoms, and their parents, who completed the CBCL, assessing externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Boys scored significantly higher on aggressiveness and hyperactivity, and girls reported higher values on the seven remaining dimensions of CBCL, internalizing index, and Total CDI. Effects sizes were small, however, and no differences were found for externalizing index. The internalizing index was positively, significantly, and moderately correlated with almost all the externalizing problems. The externalizing index, in turn, presented significant, positive and moderate correlations with depression, anxiety, obsessive-schizoid, withdrawal, and social problems. Externalizing problems successfully predicted internalizing problems (50,6% for girls versus 37,4% for boys). Opposition/Immaturity successfully predicted Internalizing Problems for both genders and aggressiveness was a significant predictor for girls only, though this relationship was weak (β = .066, p =.031). We also found a moderation effect for gender such that in higher levels of externalizing problems girls had more internalizing problems; this was not obtained for boys. The findings increase our knowledge of the interplay between externalizing, internalizing problems and gender, and can help optimizing interventions to prevent and treat the co-morbid internalizing and externalizing problems.