Grant: Project Grant

During early childhood, boys and girls have similar mental health experiences. By adolescence, gaps start to appear for mental health outcomes. Anxiety and depression are diagnosed more commonly among girls, while for boys risk-taking behaviours and fatal outcomes such as suicide pose greater risks. These are examples of "gender-based mental health inequalities", and we want to focus here on the deep reasons why they exist. Using survey data and young people's own stories, we want to understand: (1) how individual behaviours and social processes (such as use of social media, available peer and adult supports, and risk-taking) contribute to mental health inequalities between adolescent boys and girls; (2) how differences in mental health between boys and girls are shaped by gendered differences in their social backgrounds. We will bring together new analyses of health survey data with information from a series of interviews with young Canadians. Integration of all study findings will provide new evidence about factors that effect mental health among groups of adolescents, inform interventions, and enrich the evidence base for health policy. This project is especially timely because the mental health of Canadian adolescents, as well as gender-based inequalities, have emerged as two very pressing social challenges in our country.