Personality

In a series of studies on the development of gender differences in depression, Gjerde found that young adults who described themselves as depressed had exhibited clear antecedents for the malady during their preschool years. In boys, the characteristics include a lot of anger and interpersonal antagonism. In girls, the early signs are not as strong, but the signals appear to include shyness, kindness, and relatively high intelligence, raising the possibility that smart adolescent girls may be at risk for sadness.

Another section of the study found this:heh

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.