Research suggests that a disturbing number of teen girls struggle with emotional distress, eating disorders, sexual harassment, anxiety about their bodies, and drug and alcohol abuse. Teen boys also encounter such problems but they are more likely to act out, whereas girls turn inward. Many of these problems are associated with increased risks of pregnancy. By age 14-15, girls are twice as likely as boys to suffer from depression, a gender difference that persists into adulthood.
Girls are more than twice as likely as boys to have attempted suicide.
Abused girls and girls with depressive symptoms are at triple the risk of eating disorders and double the risk for drinking, smoking, or recent drug use. Pediatric researchers believe that the onset of puberty has declined by six months to a year in recent decades. By age 12, slightly more than 62 percent of African-American girls and 35 percent of white girls have begun menstruating. From Social Protections to Self-Protection. In The Body Project Joan Jacob Brumberg points to two important changes in cultural attitudes about girls' sexuality.