l of their environments than boys from a very early age, and this sense of uncontrollability contributes to rumination," psychologists Susan Nolen-Hoeksema and Joan Girgus said. The study, which was presented to a meeting of the American Psychological Association here, said that sharply higher depression rates among teenage girls and women may be directly linked to the habit of "rumination". Before the age of 11, girls and boys have more or less equal rates of depressive symptoms and depressive disorders. As they grow to the age of 15, however, depression rates rise sharply among girls, while rising only slightly among boys. Girgus and Nolen-Hoeksema said that rumination - which they describe as "passive repetitive focus on negative emotions" - looked like a probable culprit. In a survey of 615 San Francisco area teenagers, the two psychologists asked which aspects of their lives prompted the greatest worries. While the sexes reported roughly equal rates of concern about school, relationships with parents and future career plans, the girls reported a whole host of other worries that hardly registered among the boys. Among these were worries about their appearance,

friends, personal problems, romantic relationships, being popular and being safe, the study said. "The only issue that boys reported being more concerned about than girls was `sports and other activities,`" the study said. The two psychologists said that the wide variety of concerns plaguing teenage girls could make it more difficult to treat their depression - and offered no quick fix for the problem.