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Depression among girls and women - when will this stop being treated like news? [View all]
When will people stop pretending the answer isn't blatantly obvious?
The results of the latest study made the news this month:
Teen girls twice as likely to suffer depression than boys, research shows
...
The study's lead author Professor George Patton, says it is still unclear why girls had more problems.
"It may be something to do with biology. There may be a predisposition of this kind in girls," he said.
...
"In about half of the cases in boys who had an episode of anxiety and depression -emotional problems - during the teens, it continued into their 20s," he said.
"For girls, the continuity rate was actually a bit higher. About two-thirds of girls who had problems of this kind continued into their twenties."
...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-16/teen-girls-twice-as-likely-to-suffer-depression-than-boys2c-re/5203626
...
The study's lead author Professor George Patton, says it is still unclear why girls had more problems.
"It may be something to do with biology. There may be a predisposition of this kind in girls," he said.
...
"In about half of the cases in boys who had an episode of anxiety and depression -emotional problems - during the teens, it continued into their 20s," he said.
"For girls, the continuity rate was actually a bit higher. About two-thirds of girls who had problems of this kind continued into their twenties."
...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-16/teen-girls-twice-as-likely-to-suffer-depression-than-boys2c-re/5203626
The thing is, this isn't news.
http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/mood-disorders-teenage-girls-anxiety-depression
It is interesting to note that before adolescence, rates of depression are about the same among girls and boys. Things begin to shift between the ages of eleven and thirteen.
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/09/22/why-do-women-get-depressed-more-than-men/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/09/22/why-do-women-get-depressed-more-than-men/
This one at least mentions the social aspect:
http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/depression_in_adolescence_does_gender_matter
We have to stop fooling ourselves. We are raising our girls in a world which treats them as less-than, and as the sex class.
Seriously, what the hell else do we expect?
We need more radical feminists. We need more people calling out the everyday reinforcements of patriarchal culture, because it is long past time to attack the root of misogyny at its source.
Yes, it will irritate people. Yes, you will lose friends. Yes, you will face significant resistance. But we have to push harder.
Those of you who have been on this site for years have seen progress just in our little microcosm. Someone posted, aghast, about the possibility of encountering someone who would tell a nursing mother to feed her infant in a restroom. Remember seeing those sentiments here? Remember seeing the blowback a few years ago when rape culture was mentioned? Things aren't perfect but they are getting better, and that means we need to push harder.
Sorry for the rant. I just saw that 'news' about the rates of depression in teenage girls and it set me off. FFS, how long ago did Dr. Pipher write Reviving Ophelia? Come on!
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