The following 2 articles show that bullying, distress, suicidal ideation and other forms of mental health for female youth have increased dramatically over the last decade. I find it disturbing that more and more data suggest our female youth are experiencing higher and higher levels of stress, distress and suicidal ideations, not just in Canada, but across the globe. As Angela Munday, CHMA’s program manager suggests below, I believe it is true that social media makes it easier for female youth to engage in increasingly more passive-aggressive cyberbullying. However, is it simply that social media is now allowing female youth access to expose their long held inner feelings more easily and anonymously or is it something that is affecting them in our society? Have societies, cultural expectations or paradigms changed with the globalization and increasing closeness of countries near and far? Are female youth simply more passive aggressive by nature and merely acting out on their natural tendencies or is it more likely that we have we created a society where we are increasing the stress and burden on our children, causing higher levels of stress and distress and pushing them for more and more achievement oriented results? Could it be the difficult economic times we are all facing? If that was the case then why are we seeing such a dramatic rise in only our female youth? Stress and distress do not cause themselves! Our young female population must have seen some kind of change that has affected this negative increase of their mental well being and happiness. We must find out the cause/s to this disturbing change and make adjustments for the sake of the mental well being of our youth.
Survey sheds light on youth mental health
Marlo Cameron
The Ottawa Sun
Date Published: Tuesday, August 14, 2012
It’s OK to ask about mental health issues, and it’s OK to ask about suicide. In fact, Benjamin Leikin, mental health project officer with Ottawa Public Health, said it could make a difference to a struggling teen. New numbers from Ottawa Public Health shed light on the state of youth mental health in the city. The report, released Tuesday, was compiled from surveys conducted through the 2010/11 school year with students in grades 7-12 in public and Catholic school systems. Among the statistics, the report says 12% of youth have seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, and 42% of girls and 25% of boys reported ‘elevated psychological distress’ in the weeks before the survey.
According to a survey conducted by Ottawa Public Health over the 2010-11 academic year, Ottawa students in grades 7-12 reported the following:
- 28% reported excellent mental health
- 1/3 students said they experience elevated feelings of stress
- 12% had seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year
- 50% of students from a family of a low socio-economic status reported strong feelings of stress, compared with 30% of students from families with a higher socio-economic status
- 17% of students from a family of a low socio-economic status reported ‘very good’ mental health, and 28% had considered attempting suicide in the past year
- 18% said they were worried about being harmed or threatened at school
- 28% of students said they had been bullied
- 21% of girls and 15% of boys said they had visited a mental health professional
Portions of the full document were retrieved August 23rd from http://www.kidsmentalhealth.ca/news_and_events/child-mental-health-news-id-2347.htm
Female students have elevated rates of bullying, distress
Nicki Cruickshank
Barrie Examiner
Date Published: Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Sugar and spice and everything nice isn’t exactly what girls are made of these days.
According to a youth survey released Tuesday, female students are showing elevated rates of bullying and psychological distress, along with become violent toward their peers.
The Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS), conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), revealed an increasing negative trend of teen girls committing and/or being victims of bullying, psychological distress and physical violence among their schoolmates.
“It’s an important and concerning trend we’re seeing. The problem behaviors have been decreasing among young males, but not among females,” said Dr. Robert Mann, CAMH senior scientist and lead investigator of the study. “In adolescence, life is full of fun and a lack of stress. But this study shows us that’s not the case for many young females.” The survey was conducted from November 2010 to June 2011 with 9,288 students in grades 7 to 12 at 181 Ontario schools. Mann said the number of students reporting psychological distress has remained at 34% since 1999 when CAMH began tracking it.
Distress can come in the form of depression, anxiety, social dysfunction, lack of sleep and poor self-image. But, this year, that number among females shot up to 43% from 36% in 1999, over the 24% of reports from teen boys. Along with that stress, the survey showed 14% of teen girls experienced thoughts of suicide and 4% tried to commit suicide at twice the rate of boys. “We see overall higher rates of suicidal ideation in females. They are twice as likely to report thoughts or attempts of it,” Mann said. The picture looks similar in the Barrie area, too, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Simcoe branch. “We provide outreach in the local high schools and my team is in most Barrie schools. In the last couple of years, the demand for our services has increased steadily,” said Angela Munday, CHMA’s program manager for its early prevention program and youth services.
The survey also outlined bullying, and found that males reported a decline in being bullying victims. For the girls, however, reports show they are twice as likely to be bullied or to bully — 28% more likely versus 15% of boys. CMHA Barrie-Simcoe is finding much of the same.
“In terms of bullying, girls are increasingly being bullied and initiating the bullying more than boys,” Munday said. “The boys are pretty aggressive, in your face and saying ‘Let’s take this outside’. With the girls, we’re seeing more passive-aggressive cyberbullying — threats made on Facebook or through texts. And the physical violence is also increasing.” Munday said she believes cyberspace makes it much easier for students to bully or be bullied, because sending a text or Facebook message doesn’t require the bully to face the victim or hear their voice while picking on them.
Portions of the full document were retrieved August 23rd from http://www.kidsmentalhealth.ca/news_and_events/child-mental-health-news-id-2334.htm
