Scientists have linked loneliness and the desire for thinness with depression in girls

Teenage girls are more likely to experience depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts than boys, and some of the differences may be related to loneliness and the desire to be thinner. Research also shows that in adolescence, problems with body perception and eating disorders are also associated with emotional state and social media use. About what factors can affect the mental health of adolescents, see the Izvestia article.

Girls were more likely to experience depressive symptoms

The researchers analyzed data from 3,171 participants — 1,487 girls and 1,684 boys. The adolescents were monitored at the ages of 12, 14, and 16, which made it possible to compare their condition at different stages of adulthood. The results of the study are published in the journal Nature Human Behavior (NHB). At the age of 16, 15.9% of girls and 8.2% of boys had depressive symptoms. Suicidal thoughts were also more common among girls — 29.8% versus 18.1% among boys.

Then the scientists tried to determine which factors could explain some of the differences. To do this, they drew attention to the condition of teenagers at the age of 14, in particular, the feeling of loneliness and the desire to be thinner.

The researchers emphasize that we are talking about so—called internal problems - conditions in which negative experiences are directed primarily at the person himself. The results show a link between gender, social factors, and subsequent mental state, but they do not in themselves prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

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Loneliness became more noticeable even before the symptoms appeared

One of the factors that the researchers drew attention to was the feeling of loneliness. It was evaluated in adolescents at the age of 14, that is, two years before the assessment of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts at the age of 16.

As part of the statistical analysis, scientists assessed how much of the differences between girls and boys could explain loneliness and the desire to be thinner. Together, these factors statistically explained 34.7% of the differences in depressive symptoms and 46.3% of the differences in suicidal thoughts.

This does not mean that loneliness directly caused depression. The authors assessed the contribution of factors to the observed difference between the groups using a media analysis. Therefore, the results suggest a possible path through which social and psychological factors are associated with the subsequent condition of adolescents.

However, more than half of the differences in the prevalence of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts were not explained by these two factors. Consequently, the study does not reduce the difference between girls and boys only to loneliness and attitude to appearance.

The psychologist named the main differences between solitude and loneliness.

The desire to be thinner turned out to be the second factor

The second factor was the desire to be thinner. Like loneliness, it was assessed at the age of 14, and then compared with indicators of mental state at the age of 16. By itself, the desire to lose weight does not mean that you have a mental disorder or an eating disorder.

However, in the study, it turned out to be one of two factors that statistically helped explain the higher prevalence of internal problems among girls. This result is also important in the context of the broader problem of body perception.

However, the study did not diagnose participants with anorexia or other RPP. Therefore, his results cannot be interpreted as evidence that the desire to be thinner leads to anorexia. The researchers only found a statistical link between this factor and differences in the mental state of adolescents.

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RPP often begins in adolescence

Additional context is provided by data on the prevalence of RPP among children and young people. In a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, researchers combined the results of 16 studies involving 77,714 children and young adults from 12 countries.

The estimated prevalence of any eating disorders was 5.23%, about one case per 20 children and young adults. At the same time, estimates between individual studies varied greatly, so the indicator cannot be directly transferred to the population of any particular country.

The most common category in the meta—analysis turned out to be other specified eating and eating disorders (4.88%). In general, RPP was more common in girls than in boys: the estimated prevalence was 5.25% versus 3.97%, although the confidence intervals of these estimates overlapped.

The authors considered anorexia nervosa separately. The studies included in the review showed significantly lower rates of its prevalence than for RPP as a whole. This is important because the term "eating disorder" combines several conditions and is not limited to anorexia.

Thus, the desire for thinness from the Japanese study cannot be directly equated with anorexia. However, the results of various studies show that the attitude of adolescents to their own bodies is a separate area that is being studied in connection with mental health and eating behavior.

Social media has worsened the mental health indicators of teenagers

Social networks have been linked to body perception problems

Another possible factor is related to the use of social media. In a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Adolescent Research Review, researchers combined data from 45 studies involving 33,086 adolescents. Researchers have found a statistical link between increased use of social media and greater severity of body perception problems and symptoms of eating disorders. The connection was stronger in the samples with a higher proportion of girls.

For body image problems, the meta-analysis included 32 studies with 13,030 participants. The authors assessed the overall relationship as small. 11 studies with 10,775 adolescents were separately analyzed for the symptoms of RPP. At the same time, most of the included studies were observational, so the results do not allow us to assert that the use of social networks in itself causes eating disorders.

Thus, several studies at once indicate the intersection of emotional state, loneliness, attitudes towards one's own appearance and behavior on social networks. However, these factors do not explain all the differences between adolescents and do not allow us to reduce depression or RPP to one cause.

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The reasons for the differences between teenagers are not yet clear.

A new study shows that loneliness and the desire to be thinner may explain some of the differences in depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts between girls and boys. However, the authors do not claim that these factors are the only reason for the observed gap.

There are limitations to additional work. A meta-analysis of the prevalence of RPP showed a very high heterogeneity of results between studies, and the analysis of social networks was largely based on observational data. In addition, the studies were conducted in different countries and among different age groups, so their results cannot be automatically transferred to all adolescents.

Taken together, these data show that adolescent mental health is linked to several areas at once — social relationships, perception of one's own body, and features of interaction with the digital environment. However, further long-term research is needed to understand which factors directly precede the development of depression or eating disorders.