The recent sudden decline in female adolescent mental health
Location
E4118
Document Type
Poster
Start Date
30-11-2023 3:50 PM
End Date
30-11-2023 4:30 PM
Description
Abstract
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2011-2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, female adolescent mental health has significantly declined in the recent decade. There has been a 21% increase in persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness among female adolescents compared to an 8% increase among their male peers. Though the 21% increase in feelings analogous to depression occurred between 2011 and 2021, much of this trend is represented by a sharp decline in female adolescent mental health post-2017. This poster aims to present a scoping review of over 50 published articles to account for both trends. Articles were selected based on their relevance to the American female adolescent population with a majority of articles selected from Pediatrics, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Pew Research Center. Other sources were complied through targeted searches utilizing PubMed and ClinicalKey. Decade trends in the decline of female adolescent health correlated to predominately female substance abuse, lack of mental health care for both teens and their caregivers, a shift to more females pursuing higher education, potential climate change stress, lack of school belonging, general female risk for depression, propensity to females being victims of violence, and the most popular forms of media depicting poor mental health often through inaccurate representations. The sharp decline in female adolescent mental health post-2017 was correlated to the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing social media use, and increasing radicalization experienced by female youths in America.
Recommended Citation
Nadolski, Emily and Swenson, Tami, "The recent sudden decline in female adolescent mental health" (2023). DMU Research Symposium. 78.
https://digitalcommons.dmu.edu/researchsymposium/2023rs/2023abstracts/78
The recent sudden decline in female adolescent mental health
E4118
Abstract
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2011-2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, female adolescent mental health has significantly declined in the recent decade. There has been a 21% increase in persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness among female adolescents compared to an 8% increase among their male peers. Though the 21% increase in feelings analogous to depression occurred between 2011 and 2021, much of this trend is represented by a sharp decline in female adolescent mental health post-2017. This poster aims to present a scoping review of over 50 published articles to account for both trends. Articles were selected based on their relevance to the American female adolescent population with a majority of articles selected from Pediatrics, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Pew Research Center. Other sources were complied through targeted searches utilizing PubMed and ClinicalKey. Decade trends in the decline of female adolescent health correlated to predominately female substance abuse, lack of mental health care for both teens and their caregivers, a shift to more females pursuing higher education, potential climate change stress, lack of school belonging, general female risk for depression, propensity to females being victims of violence, and the most popular forms of media depicting poor mental health often through inaccurate representations. The sharp decline in female adolescent mental health post-2017 was correlated to the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing social media use, and increasing radicalization experienced by female youths in America.
