Girls and boys are different when it comes to mental health

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Girls and boys have many differences when it comes to their mental health, as revealed in The Health of Canada’s young people: A mental health focus, a 194-page report just released by the Public Health Agency of Canada

This report presents the findings from the 2010 Canadian survey, The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, a cross-national study supported by the World Health Organization. 

Some of the gender differences reported include:

-       Girls had higher levels of emotional problems and lower levels of emotional well-being and life satisfaction than boys. Furthermore, while on many internalizing/emotional variables, boys’ scores remain fairly even across grades, scores for girls consistently worsen.

-       More girls than boys believe that their body is too fat, while more boys than girls see their body as too thin. By Grade 10, 39% of girls believe their body is too fat. The percentage of girls who believe their body is too fat represents a far greater percentage than girls who are overweight or obese.

-       Binge drinking and cannabis use have stronger negative relationships with mental health for girls when compared to boys, while having had sex links to poorer emotional well-being for girls but better emotional well-being for boys.

Find both the summary and the full report on the PHAC website at The Health of Canada’s Young People: A Mental Health Focus (2012)