There is a big problem with depression among teens in the United States. A new study has been released that shows that on average 8.5% of teenagers suffer from depression and while I could say something snarky about how easy it is to be depressed in the US right now, it turns out that these numbers don't tell the whole story.
Read on to discover how the numbers are being used so that the huge gender disparity can be overlooked.
Reuters has an article out today about how teenagers are suffering from depression. The problem with the article is that while they point out that there is a HUGE gender difference they seem to both highlight and ignore it at the same time.
The thing is that 12.7% of teen girls suffer from depression while the number for boys is 4.6%. I see a huge problem here. This is not an 8.5% average this is almost 13% of girls suffering from depression during their teens and while this comes as no huge surprise to me, since I lived through my teens in the US, it is highly significant that there is a HUGE difference between the number for girls and for boys.
I am very concerned that the girls in the US are suffering so greatly from depression and I can't help but wonder how the sexism in our society is feeding this problem. This is clearly bigger than a teenage problem. This is a problem with our girls. I find this particularly disheartening considering how many programs have been developed to help girls develop better through their adolescent years. Maybe the grassroots programs are fighting against the windmills of our incredibly sexist culture.
Maybe I can just blame Sex in the City. I would really like to blame something on them.
So what's going on with the girls? And why is this not affecting the boys in the same way? And why is this difference not the focus of the media stories?
So many questions, so much sexism. What do you think is the underlying cause?