[2]
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 [3] (2012)