Depressive symptoms as a function of sex-role, rumination, and neuroticism Peggilee Wupperman * , Craig S. Neumann Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, P.O. Box 311280, Denton, TX 76203-1280, United States Received 4 November 2004; accepted 16 May 2005 Available online 12 September 2005 Abstract The current study examined the relations between biological sex, socialized masculinity, rumination, neu- roticism, and depressive symptoms in a large sample of young adults (N = 589). As hypothesized, socialized masculinity negatively predicted rumination, neuroticism, and depression even when biological sex was con- trolled. Structural equation modeling revealed that rumination-on-sadness predicted neuroticism and depression, whereas rumination-in-general predicted only neuroticism. Controlling for masculinity, rumina- tion, and neuroticism, men were more likely to experience depressive symptoms than were women. Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Rumination; Sex-role; Gender-role; Depression; Neuroticism; Gender 1. Introduction Research has consistently found rumination to be a predictor of depressive episodes. Individ- uals who ruminate in response to negative emotions experience more depressive symptoms, more depressive incidences, greater risk for future depressive episodes, and longer durations of depres- sion than do those who tend not to ruminate (Matheson & Anisman, 2003; Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991; Spasojevic & Alloy, 2001). This relationship has also been found in clinical 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.05.017 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 940 565 2671; fax: +1 940 565 4682. E-mail addresses: pegwupp@hotmail.com (P. Wupperman), csn0001@unt.edu (C.S. Neumann). www.elsevier.com/locate/paid Personality and Individual Differences 40 (2006) 189–201