Why incidence rate of depression is faster for young girls than boys?

February 18, 2020 / bioun / -- at present, we are at the center of adolescent mental health crisis, and girls are one of them Since 2010, the incidence of depression, self mutilation and suicide among adolescent boys has increased, but in the United States, adolescent girls have suffered from major depression The incidence rate increased from 12% in 2011 to 20% in 2017 In 2015, 10 to 14 years old girls were three times more likely to enter the emergency room because of intentional self harm Meanwhile, the suicide rate of teenage girls has doubled since 2007 Photo source: choosehelp.com, with the popularity of mobile phone, the incidence rate of depression is increasing, so digital media may also play a role The generation of teenagers born after 1995 is called igen or Gen Z they are the first people to spend the whole adolescence in the era of smart phones; at the same time, they are also the first teenagers to experience social media as an integral part of social life Of course, boys and girls start using smartphones almost at the same time So why do girls have more mental health problems? After three surveys of more than 200000 teenagers in the United States and Britain, the researchers found some answers The researchers found that young boys and girls spend different amounts of time on digital media, with boys spending more time on games and girls spending more time on smartphones, texting and social media The game includes different forms of communication Players often interact in real time and communicate with each other through headphones Social media, by contrast, usually send messages through pictures or text; however, even a brief pause before a reply is received can cause anxiety Of course, there is also a way for social media to create levels, with the number of likes and concerns holding social power; images are planned, personas are cultivated, and texts are meticulously produced, deleted and rewritten All of this makes you feel stressed, and a study shows that simply comparing yourself to others on social media makes you more likely to be depressed And unlike many game systems, smartphones are portable, interfering with face-to-face social activities or being taken to bed, two behaviors that have been found to damage mental health and sleep Not only do boys and girls spend their digital media time on different activities, but social media may have a greater impact on girls than boys Previous research has shown that adolescents who spend more time on digital media are more likely to feel depressed and unhappy, a relationship that is stronger among girls than among boys The more time boys and girls spend on electronic devices, the higher their level of unhappiness will be, but for girls, the normal range of unhappiness index is larger Only 15% of girls who spend about 30 minutes a day on social media feel unhappy, but 26% of girls who spend six hours or more a day on social media say they are unhappy For boys, the difference in happiness is not so obvious 11% of the people who spend 30 minutes on social media every day say they are unhappy, while 18% of the people who spend more than 6 hours on social media every day say they are unhappy Photo source: youthvoices.live so why are girls more likely to be unhappy when using social media? The influence of popularity and positive social interaction on girls' happiness is often more obvious than that of boys Social media can be both a cold arbiter of popularity and a platform for bullying, humiliation and dispute In addition, girls continue to face more physical pressure, which may be exacerbated by social media, which, for these reasons, has a greater impact on girls than boys From these data about the use and unhappiness of digital media, we can't distinguish what causes it, although some experiments show that using digital media can indeed cause unhappiness If so, the negative impact of digital media, especially social media, on girls' mental health may be greater than that of boys Parents can help children and teenagers delay using social media In fact, the law says that children can't use their social media accounts until they are 13, but this law is rarely enforced, and parents can insist that their children stay away from social media until they are 13 Among the older teenagers, the situation is more complicated because the use of social media is very common Still, friends can talk about these challenges, and to some extent, many people may realize that social media can make them feel anxious or sad They may agree to call each other more, have a rest, or let others know that they won't reply immediately, which doesn't mean they will be angry or upset Now researchers are learning more and more about how social media is designed to be addictive, and the more money companies make, the more time users spend on the platform Such profits may come at the expense of the mental health of adolescents, especially girls Reference materials: [1] Melissa C Mercado, PhD, MSC, MA1; Kristin Holland, PhD, mph1; Ruth w leemis, mph1; et al trends in emergency department visits for nonfatal self inflamed inventions among young aged 10 to 24 years in the United States, 2001-2015, JAMA 2017; 318 (19): 1931-1933 Doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.13317 【2】 QuickStats： Suicide Rates*，？ for Teens Aged 15–19 Years， by Sex — United States， 1975–2015
【3】 iGen 【4】 Gender differences in associations between digital media use and psychological well-being： Evidence from three large datasets 【5】Mai-Ly N Steers， Robert E Wickham， and Linda K Acitelli (2014) Seeing Everyone Else's Highlight Reels： How Facebook Usage is Linked to Depressive Symptoms Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology ： Vol 33， No 8， pp 701-731 doi：10.1521/jscp.2014.33.8.701 【6】 Smartphone use undermines enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions 【7】Kira E Riehm， MS1； Kenneth A Feder， PhD1； Kayla N Tormohlen， MPH1； et al
Associations Between Time Spent Using Social Media and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Among US Youth ， JAMA Psychiatry 2019；76(12)：1266-1273 doi：10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2325 【8】 Why teen depression rates are rising faster for girls than boys by Jean Twenge， The Conversation