Epidemiological studies indicate that, in general, men and African Americans experience lower rates of depressive symptoms and disorders than do women and members of other racial or ethnic groups (Pratt and Brody 2008). The prevalence of depression varies across the life course, however, and these reported differences may not accurately characterize the prevalence of depressive symptoms African American men experience during late adolescence. For example, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Walsemann and colleagues (Walsemann et al. 2009) found that African American men in late adolescence had higher rates of depressive symptoms than did their Caucasian peers. This trend has been replicated in data from the National Health Interview Study (Child Trends Data Bank 2006), in which rates of depressive symptoms were similar for men and women age 18 to 24 years, and rates for African American young adults were equal to or higher than those reported by Caucasians. Depressive symptoms during late adolescence and the transition to adulthood confers a substantial risk for persistence or recurrence of depression later in adulthood (Rush et al. 2012).
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