A report by the World Health Organization has found that the modern-day teens’ satisfaction with life depends differently on both the sexes. As per the report, perception of both genders on the issues surrounding their lives vary with how they conceive reality.
The report included 220,000 respondents from 42 countries, aged 11 to 15. The researchers concluded that 11-year-olds generally rated their health on a ‘low’ scale. For boys as they grew older, they increased their own self-ratings of health; but for the girls as they grew older, they continued to rate their own health as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’.
Teen girls in the survey were also more likely than boys to “think they are too fat,” and that only increased with age (26% of 11-year-old girls versus 43% of 15-year-olds). On the other hand, researchers found that the rate of obesity remained stable in teenage years.
“Why this is a huge problem: Poor body image has been shown in research to have all sorts of detrimental effects on mental health, and can even promote unhealthy eating patterns and depression”, researchers stated in the report.
Apart from the mentioned, other findings of the research concluded:
- Just 25% of 11-year-olds and 16% of 15-year-olds get at least an hour of moderate to vigorous exercise each day.
- About one in four 15-year-old girls find it hard to talk to their mother about what’s troubling them.
- Only half of 15-year-old girls eat breakfast every day.
- When it comes to feeling pressure due to school, boys feel it worst at age 11, while girls feel it worst at ages 13 and 15.
