Helping teen girls thrive

Statistics reveal that many more teen girls are struggling with mental health issues. What's going on with them? More importantly, what can we do to help them flourish?

- Linda Moon

Girls start out on a par with boys. But around adolescence, for many, their mental health takes a hit and begins to slide. In a 2023 survey by Planet Youth, 35 per cent of Year 10 girls rated their mental health "good" or "very good", compared to 55 per cent of boys. The online survey - which included 27 schools within NSW and South Australia and more than 1700 participants - is one of many showing mounting evidence of a teen mental health gender divide. And it occurs in most countries, according to a 2021 study of 566,829 adolescents across 73 countries. Curiously, it's worse in wealthier countries and those considered more gender equal.

Toxic culture

In the 1990s, author and clinical psychologist Dr Mary Pipher delved into the topic to understand the depression, anxiety, eating disorders, suicide attempts, cutting, substance abuse and other emanations of pain in the girls she was seeing in her clinic. The bestselling book that resulted, Reviving Ophelia, blames our "girl-poisoning" culture. Sexist language, music, ads, TV and movies, sex abuse and porn are among its many manifestations. Society also promotes materialism, competition, perfectionism, sexism and obsession with physical appearance.

Ultimately, it undermines girls' confidence at a vulnerable stage of development and is literally toxic to their growth, values and wellbeing.

In Reviving Ophelia, Pipher writes: "They are coming of age in a more dangerous, sexualised and media-saturated culture. They face incredible pressures to be beautiful and sophisticated, which in junior high means using chemicals and being sexual." Her message remains relevant. Like parents today, those Pipher spoke to despaired. While trying far harder than their own parents, their daughters were more troubled. "They see their own families as dysfunctional," she wrote. "Instead, I believe what we have is a dysfunctional culture."

Digital dangers