Making sense of the widening gender mental health gap: what teenage girls told us
SeventyFour/Shutterstock
Women experience greater low mood and anxiety than men. This longstanding gender mental health gap reflects a complicated mix of biological, psychological, social, and sociocultural factors – though we are still far from fully understanding it.
NHS data shows that young women aged 17-19 are twice as likely to have a mental health disorder as young men. Other national data shows steeper increases in symptoms of low mood and anxiety for girls.
Common explanations put forward include social media...