Poverty and Social Media Likely to Lead Girls into Mental-illness than Boys

The study, which polled more than 11,000 14-year-olds, found girls tend to spend more time on social media than boys.

While 15 percent of all surveyed said they had self-harmed in the last year, twice as many girls reported having done so.

Dimitra Hartas, the report’s lead author, said: “Wider inequality and gender inequality are likely to have a negative impact on how resources, as well as opportunities, are distributed. The current distribution helps young men more than girls.

Social media can also make girls more competitive and feel inadequate. I t can create the idea other people have wonderful or better lives. There is also the issue of the early sexualization of girls and the notion of the perfect body.

This study was different because it looks at the wide variety of ways girls are experiencing mental health problems.

It is not only moods but also self-worth, self-image, and satisfaction with life.

Young people respond by focusing more on the self and less on the societal structures likely to promote mental ill-health.

Girls and young adults and women tend to internalize systemic problems and blame themselves.

She called for “wider systemic changes” in society to address gender inequality and poverty given they are the two main “driving interconnecting factors” behind teenage girls experiencing worse mental health issues.

Dr. Hartas said she had chosen to keep the focus on this age group because they are between childhood and adulthood and different “options and trajectories” are still open to them.

The study, published in journal Research Papers in Education, found teenagers from families earning the least were 48 percent more likely to report low life satisfaction than those from the richest backgrounds.

Almost twice as many girls as boys polled felt “completely unhappy” and girls were more than three times more likely than boys to say they had a low perception of their own value – including poor self-image.

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