Swedish girls more depressed than boys

Girls aged 12 to 15 feel more insecure and feel worse than boys, according to data from the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB). This applies both at home and at school.

The surveys on children’s living conditions are conducted every three years, with children aged 12 and over answering various questions about their everyday lives. They show that a large majority of both girls and boys aged 12 to 15 are doing fairly or very well. However, when looking at those who feel bad, the figures show greater differences between the genders. Here, 37 per cent of girls say that they often or most of the time feel “down”, while the proportion of boys is 13 per cent.

Furthermore, girls also have problems with sleep, feel tired and skip meals, compared to the proportion of boys. Half of the girls also experience headaches at least once a week, while one in four boys report having them. When it comes to stomach pain, 44 per cent of girls say they have it every week, compared to 16 per cent of boys.

– About twice as many girls as boys feel stressed at least once a week, 64 and 31 per cent respectively, says Helena Rudander, investigator at SCB, in a press release.

Girls more unsafe

In the classroom, 70 per cent of boys aged 12 to 15 feel “very safe”, while the figure for girls is 46 per cent. When it comes to safety on the way to and from school, 77% of boys feel safe, while 55% of girls feel the same.

– Significantly more boys than girls feel very safe in the classroom, during breaks or on the way to and from school. The same applies to safety in the neighbourhoods where the children live, Rudander explains.