Teenage girls explain mental health gender gap in new study

Discussions around youth mental health often highlight rising levels of low mood, anxiety, and low life satisfaction. The impact of the pandemic, social media, and academic pressure have all been suggested as drivers for these experiences. With recent findings suggesting that teen girls' mental health is worsening at a faster rate than teen boys, however, research that seeks out what may be driving this disparity is becoming increasingly important.

Writing in BMC Women's Health, the University of Manchester's Ola Demkowicz and team investigate the experiences of teenage girls, seeking to draw on their first-hand knowledge to nail down what they perceive to be causing low mood and anxiety across their demographic. Their answers provide a complex, nuanced insight into the individual differences, social contexts, and demographic factors that impact girls' mental health in the UK today.

The research was co-produced with young researchers, who helped shape the project's design, implementation, and analysis. This, the team says, enabled them to "better engage with participants and more meaningfully interpret their experiences" through the lens of young people.

For this study, 32 young women aged 16 to 18 took part in focus groups between May and August 2022. Half had previously sought help for mental health concerns from GPs, school counsellors, or psychiatric services. Within these focus groups, they explored a number of prompts, including whether reported higher levels of low mood and anxiety among teenage girls resonated with their own experiences, and why. They also touched on possible contributing factors, including family and home life, school, relationships, social media, and worries about the future.

The team drew out six key themes from what was discussed. Firstly, many teenage girls felt that rising rates of poor mental health were unsurprising; for them, heightened rates of low mood and anxiety among girls were seen as 'normal'. Talking about mental health was increasingly common, but only to a certain extent — one participant noted that they believed "it's okay to not be okay, until it gets messy."

Another major factor was perceived narrow expectations of how girls 'should' behave. Societal pressures regarding appearance, such as shaving or wearing make-up, were described as obligatory, with participants describing girls as feeling a pressure to be "quiet and polite." These pressures contributed to feelings of insecurity and diminished self-worth.

Academic expectations were a significant source of stress, with an intense pressure to achieve. Though on the surface this factor may seem as though it would be equally felt by both boys and girls, it was seen as a gendered issue, too: the group believed that in some cases, higher academic achievement for girls is expected. One phrased this succinctly: "if a boy fails... it's not that bad... if a girl does, it means a lot more."

There were variations on this theme across academic endeavours, however. Perceived lower expectations for girls in STEM subjects also reinforced stress and anxiety in the classroom. As another participant, identified as 'Emmy', shared, "if you're in like a male-dominated classroom and you're getting the worst results, it kind of… you just feel like you take all of that on yourself and you just feel like you're letting down other women."

Next, the team looked at peer relationships. Participants described the challenge of navigating a "culture of comparison" with appearances and academics, which often led to significant insecurity and stress. Conflict with peers, like bullying, fallouts, and break-ups, were also a major source of distress, particularly when they spilled across online and offline spaces.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, social media was identified as a significant intensifier of many of these pressures. Participants identified platforms such as TikTok and Instagram as promoting unrealistic beauty standards, though they also provided spaces for body positivity, mental health advocacy, and community-building. One participant described the joys of increased connectedness, but also reflected that it can lead to "comparing yourself to everyone."

Finally, participants emphasised that no single factor is driving high rates of low mood and anxiety. Instead, with interactions between multiple intersecting factors at play. And, while many of these challenges disproportionately affect girls, some participants reflected that other groups also felt their strain. The prevalent and often systemic nature of these pressures means that implementing solutions may be equally difficult and complex, and that progress will likely be hard-won. Even so, participants felt that small changes do make a difference: "even if one little bit can be tackled then it's one bit that [can] help a person".

While acknowledging the complexity of the issue, the study provides specific insights that enhance our understanding of teenage girls' mental health. The researchers argue that further work in this area must be addressed with a gender-sensitive approach, which recognises the specific challenges girls face — and that doing so could help policymakers develop a more strategic response.

Read the paper in full:
Demkowicz, O., Jefferson, R., Nanda, P., Foulkes, L., Lam, J., Pryjmachuk, S., Evans, R., Bernadka Dubicka, Neill, L., Winter, L. A., & Nnamani, G. (2025). Adolescent girls' explanations of high rates of low mood and anxiety in their population: a co-produced qualitative study. BMC Women S Health, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03517-x

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