Researchers have found a link between the timing of one's birth and a later risk of depression symptoms, but only in men.
  • slazer2au@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    17 days ago

    Mokkonen and his team conducted an online survey of 303 adults. Participants provided basic demographic information like age and answered two questionnaires commonly used to assess a person’s level of anxiety and depression. After controlling for factors like age and income, the researchers found that summer-born men (specifically people whose biological sex was male) were noticeably more likely to report depression symptoms than men born anytime else.

    These sorts of studies can only show a correlation between any two things (seasonality at birth and depression in this case) and not decidedly prove that being born in the summer can shape men’s mental health. The researchers also admit they only collected survey responses over a brief two-month period in early 2024, meaning they might not have been able to capture people’s “variations in depression and anxiety scores.” And while some of the participants did come from different countries, a substantial proportion were college students. It’s fair to say this is far from a thorough or complete study.

    Right… So not more likely to be depressed, just more likely to report it…

    • fracture@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      3·
      17 days ago

      i don’t understand what the implication is here. is more likely to report depression symptoms meaningfully distinct from having them? do we think that men born in the summer are just more honest about their mental health struggles?

      • slazer2au@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        17 days ago

        The title of the post says summer men = more likely to be depressed.

        When the article doesn’t say that. It says that summer men are more likely to report depression tendencies then any other season .

        • fracture@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          2·
          17 days ago

          what does that distinction mean to you, aside from the literal wording being different?

          oh you mean they’re not diagnosed with depression, they are only reporting higher scores of anxiety and depression, i see

          • jnod4@lemmy.caEnglish
            2·
            17 days ago

            Obviously being born in the summer makes one a worse lier, maybe it’s the heat burning off all the bad brain cells, or maybe we can teach that guy about occam’s razor