A new study has found that teenage girls are facing increased pressure to be “perfect.” It is not easy to be a teenager. It may be easy to look at a teenager, as an adult, and think that they have a perfect life. That they do not have to face the adult-problems like rent and careers like adults. However, teenagers are in a very tricky part of their development and they are trying to find themselves away from their parents, and they are doing that with the increased pressure of peers and social media. It is important for parents to be aware of what their children are going through.
According to Medical Xpress, A study has found that the pressure teenage girls are facing to be “perfect” is taking a toll on their mental health. This was shown through a study that was done by the University of Exeter and it can be read in full here.
This pressure is not just coming from social media, but it has also been found to be coming from schools and families. Teenage girls are being made to feel like they need to live up to what everyone thinks is an “ideal” and “good” girl.
This is causing them struggles with their mental health, and it is not hard to determine that it does so because it is almost impossible to be perfect. Everyone is human, and humans make mistakes and they learn from them. However, teenage girls may not be given a lot of leeway in this way. The researchers found that this pressure was similar among all cultures and backgrounds. When it comes to specific things that they are feeling pressure about, they feel that they need to achieve high grades, be popular and beautiful, and participate in extra-curricular activities. All of this is proving to be too much for them to carry.
To complete this study, researchers looked at over 11 studies from around the world and they were from between the years 1990 to 2021. They had enough evidence to say that older teenage girls are facing this pressure at a significantly higher rate than older teenage boys. The researchers are hoping that this study will indicate to parents, educators, and other professionals that they need to pay better attention to the mental health of teenage girls, and to make sure they are not placing this pressure on them needlessly.
Sources: Medical Xpress, T & F Online