Stats on Teen Girls

The research done by The Prince’s Trust and the Education Policy Institute concluded that while the transition from childhood to adolescence has a massive impact on mental health and wellness,

it is a particularly stark turning point for girls.

Many research studies all conclude that prevention is better than cure in terms of teens and the research also suggests that more needs to be done to support young people, especially after the pandemic. One goal for the Worthfulness Program being put online and available to teen girls all over the world is that it will support providing an armour for them to thrive through their teenage years and beyond.

Pandemic Impact on Teens 

+ A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that was published in early February 2023 found that, in 2021, 57% of high school girls reported experiencing “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the past year,” up from 36% in 2011 only a decade earlier. 

+ That’s nearly twice as high as the 29% of males who reported having those feelings in 2021.

+ This study also saw significant increases in the percentage of youth who seriously considered suicide, made a suicide plan, and attempted suicide.

+ In 2021, nearly 30% of female students drank alcohol during the past 30 days.

+ Almost 20% of female students experienced sexual violence by anyone during the past year and 14% had ever been physically forced to have sex (that felt comfortable admitting it to the researchers but we could guess this number is higher).

+ In 2021, nearly 25% of high school girls made a suicide plan.

+ The pandemic also had a big impact on the mental health and wellness of young people more than other age demographics. According to the mental health charity, Mind, 68% of young people have said their mental health got worse during lockdown.

+ “The transition from childhood to adolescence can be turbulent, and the findings of this report underline why addressing and supporting young people’s mental health will only become more crucial as the impact of the pandemic unfolds,” said Jonathan Townsend, chief executive of The Prince’s Trust, “Young people are among the hardest hit by the pandemic, so it is more important than ever that they can access support with their mental health during this critical time in their lives.”  

+ Over half of adults and young people are over or under-eating as a coping tool. 

1/3rd of young people with existing mental health problems are self-harming to cope. 

Girls Self-Esteem & Sense of Self Drops Sharply from age 11-ish

+ Girls Self Esteem drops sharply from 11 – 14 years old, more significantly than boys based on a 2021 study done by the EPI.

+ Girl’s and boy’s mental wellness was pretty similar through primary school and it wasn’t until 14 that there started to be marked differences, according to the EPI study.

+ The Prince’s Trust and the Education Policy Institute used data from the Millennium Cohort Study. Over a two-year period, they looked at the wellbeing of an estimated 5,000 young people who were born around the year 2000. Researchers spoke to the young people about their overall wellness and mental health when they were 11, 14, and 17. They found that there was a distinct drop in girl’s self-esteem and sense of self between the ages of 11 and 14.

+ At 11, 15% said they felt unhappy about their appearance. However, by the time they were 14, 29% said they weren’t happy. 

Girls Body Image

+ 40 to 60 percent of elementary school girls (ages 6-12) are concerned about their weight or about becoming too fat.

+ 6, 7 and 8-year-old girls rated their ideal figure as significantly thinner than their current figure and this was from a 2003 study, we can only imagine how that number has changed over the last 20 years with all the new influences such as social media and technology.

+ A substantial proportion of young children have internalized societal beliefs concerning the ideal body shape and are well aware of dieting as a means for achieving this ideal. In particular, the desire for thinness emerges in girls at around age 6.

+ A 2014 survey of adults and teens regarding body image found that 80 percent of teen girls compare themselves to images they see of celebrities. It's no surprise but of those girls, almost half said that celebrity images make them feel dissatisfied with the way they look.

+ Another stat that is not surprising is from a collaboriate 2015 study of 13-year-olds between CNN, the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas and the Department of Sociology at the University of California that found participants who checked social media sites between 50 and 100 times a day were 37 percent more distressed than those who checked just a few times a day. 

+ It also found if they are on social media for many hours a day and some research says girls are on it for up to 7 hours each day, then ideally it would be best if they already have a complete positive sense of identity not based on constant unhealthy comparison.

+ "Young adolescents fervently hope to fit in with their peer groups, and are constantly seeking information about the extent to which they fit in and are liked.  Social media provides something akin to rocket fuel for this normal developmental need; young adolescents can constantly and immediately gauge their own and others’ social status by monitoring social media for followers, likes, favorite, retweets, and friends."

+ "By all accounts, parents know little about adolescents’ intense engagement with social media. And, even parents who monitor carefully by reading their children’s social media feeds may miss the hurtful nature of some of the content: the pictures of gatherings of friends to which your child was not invited, the discrepancy between the number of likes and comments your child’s posts receive in relation to others’ posts, and the efforts to invite peer reinforcement that do not yield much positive response.  Still, our results suggest that 13-year-olds benefit from parents trying to monitor their social media activities." 

Teen Girls Social Media Impact

+ Frances Haugen, the famous whistleblower from Facebook, told the world that Facebook knew about the harmful effects on teen girls. Social media researchers had spent ten years gathering evidence on how teen body image is affected by social media. 

+ Studies regularly find that teen and preteen girls who use Facebook (and these day’s it's not a leap that could swap Facebook in for Instragram or TikTok) are less satisfied with their bodies and do more self-objectification.

+ In 2014, 100 teen girls involved in a research study called 'Facebook Photo Activity Associated with Body Image Disturbance in Adolescent Girls. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking' showed that those who spent more time with Facebook photos had more weight dissatisfaction and more of a drive to be thin.

These studies that Frances Haugen revealed were done when Facebook was the number one social media app, it has since been overtaken by Instragram (owned by Facebook) and TikTok who is owned by Bytedance in Beijing, China as more popular apps for teens but it's not a big leap to imagine the results are similar, at a minimum.

From the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearings in late 2023

+ It was revealed that 1 in 8 children receive unwanted sexual advances on meta in a 7 day period on social media.

Research paper ‘Self Esteem and Contingencies of Self-Worth’ published in 2009 

+ The researchers conclusion was that people with low self-esteem tend to respond in a socially cautious manner, by seeking to withdraw from others when they feel criticized.

The piece of this study that was upsetting when thinking about teenagers, was that in each of the many different exercises they tested, the people with low self-esteem would withdraw and not seek out comfort or advice from friends and family, but instead they would withdraw from social contact and keep to themselves. It is upsetting to hear that a teen girl with low self esteem will keep to herself and withdraw from family and friends if something happens that challenges her.

2023 Pew Research Study

+ Some teens report using social media almost constantly during the day ‘19% say they use YouTube almost constantly, while 16% and 15% say the same about TikTok and Snapchat’.

+ Teens are more likely to recognize that social media has had a negative effect on other teens than on themselves. 32% say social media has had a mostly negative effect on people their age, while 9% say this about social media’s effect on themselves.  

+ 38% of teens say that what they see on social media makes them feel overwhelmed because of all the drama.

+ Roughly three-in-ten say it makes them feel like their friends are leaving them out of things (31%) or feel pressure to post content that will get lots of comments or likes (29%).

+ 23% say that what they see on social media makes them feel worse about their own life.

+ Teen Girls report encountering some of the pressures at higher rates than boys. 45% of girls say they feel overwhelmed because of all the drama on social media, compared with 32% of boys.

+ Girls are also more likely than boys to say social media has made them feel like their friends are leaving them out of things (37% vs. 24%) or feel worse about their own life (28% vs. 18%).

+ Social Media & Body Image Research 2016

#Being13: 3 Girls, 1 Year

For anyone that wants to gain real insight into teen girls minds and how social media affects their day-to-day lives, the journalism report titled #Being13 by Jessica Bennett is very elucidating. It’s subtitle is: Three girls, one year. This is what it’s like to be 13 today, in a world that can’t stop talking about the dire state of your future.

Jessica studied 3 girls that responded to an open call for teenagers who’d let a reporter into their lives and phones. With their parents’ permission, they each wrote weekly diaries and recorded voice memos about their days.

Please note, if you are interested in learning more about some of the concepts I mention in the Worthfulness program (after participating), there are additional research sources listed in the footer link 'sources'. This has a list of some concepts I mention in the program that the girls might want more details on.

More research to share? Please fill out the form on the Contact page to alert Rebecca of the additional teen girl research to consider adding to this resource page. Thank you.