Running head: WOMEN VS. DEPRESSION
1
Women Vs. Depression
Marina A. Herrera
California State University: East Bay
WOMEN VS. DEPRESSION
2
Introduction
Depression affects around 20% of the population and is ranked the fourth leading cause
of disability worldwide as well as expected to increase to second place by 2020 (Lu et. al 2017).
The literature pointed in various directions but first, it pointed to how pregnant women of color
who were diagnosed with depression, had higher rates of pre-term birth. While other research
suggested traumatic events throughout their childhood and adulthood such as intimate partner
violence, homelessness, drugs and alcohol, being in a stressful work environment, specifically
the military, all had significant evidence to prove that depression is triggered by these things and
it affects the lives of many women of color. As doctors have found through research, depression
is biologically caused by an abnormality in the neural circuits of the brain (Lu, Li, Lin & Zhang
2017). But, socially and culturally, depression has been affecting women of color for years.
Since these women were experiencing traumatic events at higher rates, it affected their brains
which made them develop depressive symptoms. Not only are women developing depression at
higher rates than men but compared to European white women, women of color were being
denied access to proper mental health services because of their gender and race. So in order to
find out why this is happening, the question explored was: how African American and
Hispanic/Latina women have higher rates of developing depression than European/White
women? Evidence suggests that due to income level, race/ethnicity, and gender that affects the
way they are developing higher rates of depression and are being treated unfairly.
Method
After searching many databases, finding peer reviewed journal articles, and collecting
information on these articles, this research showed specifically how women of color and of lower
income level were the most affected and had higher depression rates. First, in class, a
WOMEN VS. DEPRESSION
3
brainstorming worksheet was used which developed a topic by selecting a community, certain
keywords, peer reviewed journal articles, and the two types of studies used in the search –
qualitative and quantitative. Also a literature review table was formed by finding journal articles
in databases which were then used to compare the similarities or differences that the literature
was providing. The databases that had the most relevant information were: Academic Search
Complete, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. While using the search terms:
“depressive disorder,” “Latina & Hispanic,” “African American,” “preterm birth,” “traumatic
events,” this is where most of the literature focused mainly on why women had higher rates of
developing depression. After reading many journal articles, a two-page partial literature review
was developed and finally, rubrics were provided to review others sections for multiple peer
reviews and this helped find mistakes and to get feedback on what the literature was suggesting.
Literature Review
A mental disorder is classified as a variety of conditions that can affect how someone
thinks and interacts with others and the various moods one goes through on a daily basis (Mental
Health Conditions 2017). Many low-income African American and Hispanic women in San
Francisco, Bay Area have been especially affected with depression due to a variety of reasons.
Most of which consisted of childhood abuse, intimate partner violence, homelessness, alcohol or
drug abuse, and stressful work environments and much more. This affected their jobs, their lives,
and their potential success. Therefore the question that surfaced was: how do African American
and Hispanic/Latina women have higher rates of depression compared to European women?
The literature first pointed in the direction of pregnant women of color who had
depression or other psychiatric disorders had a higher risk of preterm birth. Baer, Chambers,
Bandoli., & Jelliffe-Pawlowski (2016) and Männistö, Mendola, Kiely, O’Loughlin, Werder,
WOMEN VS. DEPRESSION
4
Chen, Ehrenthal and Grantz (2016) both agree the women from their quantitative studies who
were suffering with depression or another psychiatric disorder had a higher risk of having the
baby before 37 weeks (preterm), which causes higher risk of mortality and morbidity. This
suggests that depression in pregnant African American and Hispanic/Latina women had higher
rates of giving birth early because the medication – an antidepressant used for treating depression
puts their child at risk because of the potential effects of this medication. Compared to European
women, most were not struggling financially but some were affected by depression but more
evidence goes to suggest that women of color were more at risk. These women of color were
more prone to an early delivery and passing on the risk of their child to develop depression or
other disorders later in the child’s lives (Männistö, Mendola, Kiely, O’Loughlin, Werder, Chen,
Ehrenthal and Grantz 2016).
