Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1996 Sex Differences in Anger Expression, Depressed Mood, and Aggression in Children and Adolescents Daniel L. Clay, t,5 Kristofer J. Hagglund, 2 Javad H. Kashani, 3 and Robert G. Frank 4 The current study examined anger expression styles and their relationship to levels of depressed mood and aggressive behavior in male and female children and adolescents. Measures of anger, anger expression, and depressed mood were collected from both children and their parents. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that anger expression significantly predicted sadness but not aggression for females, after accounting for age and anger level. Among males, anger expression was important in predicting aggression but not sadness, whereas age and anger level best predicted sadness. These results suggest that age, anger level, and anger expression may be risk factors for depression and aggression among children and adolescents. Sex appears to be an important factor in anger expression styles and related depression and aggressive behavior. KEY WORDS: anger expression; depressed mood; aggression; children. INTRODUCTION Anger has been shown to be related to numerous pathophysiological processes including cardiovascular disorders, hypertension, immune dys- function, cancer, and cholesterol (Chesney, 1985; Janisse, 1988; Miller, 1993; Waldstein et al., 1993). Anger level and anger expression have been IDepartment of Neuroscience, University of North Dakota School of Medicine, Grand Forks, North Dakota. 2Department of Clinical Health Psychology, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri. 3Department of Psychiatry, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri. 4College of Health Reated Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 5To whom correspondence should be addressed at UND Medical Center Rehabilitation Hospital, 1300 South Columbia Road, Box 9017, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202. 79 1068-9583/96/0300-0079509.50/0@ 1996Plenum Publishing Corporation