Results of a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 shows that girls and boys across the U.S. face different societal pressures and have different experiences at school but want the same things out of life.
Released on March 13, the Pew report found that the majority of teens said it’s extremely or very important to them that as adults they have a job or career they enjoy (86 percent), have close friends (69 percent) and have a lot of money (58 percent).
“While there is some common ground, many of the problems and pressure points teens are dealing with differ significantly for boys and girls,” researchers found. “In addition, many teens see imbalances in how boys and girls are experiencing school and how they’re performing academically.”
For instance, about 30 percent of teens said struggles with anxiety and depression are extremely or very common among their peers. The consensus, however, was that anxiety and depression is more common among girls at their school than among boys, but that girls have it easier when it comes to having friends they can turn to for emotional support.
Nearly all respondents said they had at least one close friend (98 percent) with boys and girls equally likely to state this was true in their case, but boys don’t appear to have friends they can turn to for emotional support. The survey found that 58 percent of teens believe girls have “it easier when it comes to having friends they can turn to for emotional support.” Only 7 percent said the same of boys, and 35 percent said it’s about the same for both.
Academics are the biggest source of pressure for teens today, according to researchers. Just over 70 percent of girls and 65 percent of boys said they “personally feel a great deal or fair amount of pressure to get good grades.”
Among those surveyed, 42 percent of teens say girls at their school get better grades than boys, 3 percent say boys get better grades than girls, and 55 percent say things are about equal.
Classroom behavior may play a role — 63 percent of teens say boys are more disruptive in class than girls, while just 4 percent say girls are more disruptive. Thirty-two percent reported no difference.
“Inversely, teens are more likely to say girls speak up more in class than to say the same about boys (34 percent vs. 18 percent). Roughly half (48 percent) say there’s no difference,” according to the report. “Additionally, about one-in-four teens (27 percent) say girls at their school get more leadership positions than boys, while 16 percent say boys get more of these positions; 56 percent say there’s no differences.”
Additional findings show girls are significantly more likely than boys to say they face at least a fair amount of pressure to “look good” (55 percent versus 39 percent) and “fit in socially” (45 percent versus 37 percent), while more boys than girls said they feel pressure to “be physically strong” (43 percent versus 23 percent) and “be good at sports” (36 percent versus 27 percent).
