The translational study came out of the social psychology lab of Timothy Strauman, professor and chair of psychology and neuroscience. It was part of an interdisciplinary working group sponsored by the Provost for studying ways to prevent depression, and was published in the journal Development and Psychopathology in 2006.

Alison Papadakis, one of Strauman’s coauthors on the study, now at Loyola College, was particularly interested in girls making the transition into adolescence. Boys and girls have the same rates of depression before adolescence. When adolescence hits, girls’ rates double, and boys’ stays the same.

“I think one of the things we’ve learned is, it’s just harder to be a teenage girl. Biologically it’s more complex, and to some extent, it’s harder because society is in the process of changing. Psychologically, girls still kind of get caught between. It’s certainly a lot more acceptable and in some cases mandatory for girls to have the same achievement standards as boys, but they also know that they’re supposed to have some more traditional, family-related goals. And there’s all this extra baggage of body image and appearance. That’s something that boys have to deal with but not anywhere near the magnitude that girls do,” said Strauman.

The study found that boys and girls differ not only in the kinds of standards and ideal goals they aspire to, but also in the way they react to failures and negative feedback.

“Girls tend to ruminate about failure more than boys do,” said Strauman.

The study data, collected from interviews with girls, found correlations for discrepancy between real vs. ideal self-image, brooding as a coping strategy, and depression. In other words, perfectionist, self-critical tendencies combined with brooding or rumination becomes a vicious circle. Rather than coming up with an action-oriented strategy, girls tend instead to interpret the negative event as a personal failure.

Brooding lies not in the events themselves, Strauman explains, but in girls' interpretations of them. As an example, he cites the nearly inevitable scenario of receiving a college rejection letter.

“She will feel really bad when she gets a rejection letter, like anybody would. So the question is, how is she interpreting that? Is she interpreting that as, well I applied to a bunch of colleges, I’m not accepted here but I know I’m accepted at this other place. Or will she interpret it as, I’m not accepted at this college, I’m not going to get accepted to any college, I’m not going to have the kind of life I want, sort of spinning out of control. That’s what the brooding is, thinking again and again about the negative thing that happened to you and all the permutations of it. It’s sort of paralyzing. It’s not a good coping strategy because it doesn’t lead you do actually do anything,” he said.

Strauman notes that while we all feel bad about negative feedback, it alone doesn’t lead to depression. A bad grade on a test might, instead, motivate us to study harder.

So why are girls less likely to use failure feedback productively?

One possible reason is that they get more, so they get overwhelmed by it. Teenage girls get, or at least perceive, more negative feedback than boys, said Strauman.

Another reason is that, stylistically, girls are more likely to internalize their response to failure, whereas boys are more likely to externalize it.

“Ironically, boys are much more at risk for externalizing disorders. They get in trouble with the law more, they’re more likely to abuse substances. The fact is that boys don’t tend to ruminate, on average girls do more of it than boys. That means girls are going to be more vulnerable to the kinds of disorders that result from keeping something inside and blaming yourself for it,” said Strauman.

So why do girls ruminate more? Strauman thinks cultural factors play a role, from parent’s subtle expectations to explicit media messages about unattainable appearance goals.

“Parents set higher expectations for girls, so they have more chances to feel like they’re failing. Parents expect boys to act like boys. Girls are more likely to see themselves as having to be perfect. The more negative affect you feel, the greater the likelihood you’re going to get stuck brooding rather than saying, ok I’ve got to do something here,” he said.

What can parents of a brooding teen do to help them deal with difficult events? Strauman says, just understanding how the process works can be helpful.

“The question isn’t what happened in a factual sense, the question is, how did that person interpret what happened? As a parent, you can either help them square up their interpretation with the actual event, or if they’re interpretation is accurate, you say, ok, how can I help you deal with that event?” said Strauman.

Strauman says there is no point in trying to change a girl’s personal style, but that she herself can learn to intervene in the cycle. Instead of staying up all night brooding about a paper, for example, a more productive option might be to take the evening off to watch a movie or get a good night’s rest.

“A really good thing to do when you’re failing at one goal is to distract yourself by doing something else,” said Strauman. “Ask yourself, what can I do right now that would at least keep me from getting into this brooding thing?”

Having ideal goals for ourselves isn’t the problem, Strauman concluded.

“Ideal self-guides aren’t the problem, that’s where positive feelings come from. You don’t have to attain them to feel good, you just have to see yourself as making progress toward them,” he said.

“Brooding is taking negative feedback and blowing it up so it’s not just your test grade, it’s you as a person, and it’s everything about you. So it’s not like, why didn’t I do better on that test, it’s what’s wrong with me?” said Strauman.

Others might blame an external factor: the teacher’s unfair, the test was too hard, etc., he says.

If that’s all you did it would be maladaptive, but at that moment, it’s not such a bad coping strategy because at least you’re not beating yourself up.