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Background: The current study examined the categorical versus continuous nature of child and adolescent depression among three samples of children and adolescents ranging from 5 to 19 years. Methods: Depression was measured using the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Indicators derived from the CDI were based on factor analytic research on the CDI and included indices of: 1) social withdrawal, 2) anhedonia, 3) incompetence/maladjustment and 4) negative self-esteem. Results: Taxometric procedures provided convergent support for the existence of a latent taxon across three independent samples. Internal and external consistency tests as well as Monte Carlo simulations supported the validity of the results. Conclusions: Multiple nonredundant procedures and samples were all consistently indicative of taxonicity in child depression.

Women in quantitative fields risk being personally reduced to negative stereotypes that allege a sex-based math inability. This situational predicament, termed stereotype threat, can undermine women's performance and aspirations in all quantitative domains. Gender-stereotypic television commercials were employed in three studies to elicit the female stereotype among both men and women. Study 1 revealed that only women for whom the activated stereotype was self-relevant underperformed on a subsequent math test. Exposure to the stereotypic commercials led women taking an aptitude test in Study 2 to avoid math items in favor of verbal items. In Study 3, women who viewed the stereotypic commercials indicated less interest in educational/ vocational options in which they were susceptible to stereotype threat (i.e., quantitative domains) and more interest infields in which they were immune to stereotype threat (i.e., verbal domains).