Research Experience in Abnormal Psychology: Gender Differences in Adolescent Psychopathology

During the middle school years, girls experience the onset of internalizing disorders, including depression and anxiety at higher rates than boys, while boys exceed girls in externalizing problems, such as aggression, oppositional disorders, and school problems. In addition, a number of risk and protective factors for internalizing and externalizing disorders have been found to differ between girls and boys both in terms of prevalence rates and mechanisms of action. In this course, you will have the unique opportunity to explore sex differences in adolescent risk and resiliency factors and the development of emotional and behavioral problems by learning how to analyze data from an existing longitudinal study of middle school girls and boys. The main goals of the course include: learning how to critique research literature, develop research questions, manage datasets, analyze data, and write a research paper in APA style.

Department permission is required. Course limited to 12 students. Preference given to senior psych majors.