Starting in early adolescence، girls experience depression more often than boys، but little is known about why. A new study finds that girls experience more stressors، especially in their interpersonal world، than boys، and that their exposure and reaction to events، especially those involving peers، contribute to their higher levels of depression. These findings come from researchers at the University of South Carolina and the University of Illinois at Chicago، and are published in the January/February 2007 issue of the journal Child Development. Researchers studied 562 8th- and 10th-grade students from 18 Chicago-area schools، looking at girls and boys depressive symptoms، their use of alcohol، and the occurrence in their lives of stressors. Students recorded their experiences daily in diaries، which allowed the researchers to assess negative events in the children s lives.