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  Adolescent girls’ explanations of high rates of low mood and anxiety in their population: a co-produced qualitative study

  (2025) 2025

  This article explores why adolescent girls report higher levels of low mood and anxiety compared to boys, a disparity that has been increasing over time. The study focuses on gathering insights directly from adolescent girls to understand their perspectives on the root causes of these mental health challenges. The research identifies several contributing factors, including academic pressures, social media influence, body image concerns, relationships with peers and family, and societal expectations related to gender roles . Many participants highlighted the impact of constant comparisons on social media, the pressure to succeed in school, and difficulties in navigating friendships and romantic relationships as key stressors affecting their mental well-being. Additionally, the study discusses how gendered social norms and expectations can play a role in shaping girls’ emotional experiences. For instance, girls often feel pressure to be high achievers while also maintaining a certain appearance and behavior, leading to heightened stress, self-doubt, and anxiety . By amplifying the voices of adolescent girls, the research aims to better inform mental health interventions and develop targeted support strategies that acknowledge these gendered challenges. The study underscores the importance of creating safe, supportive environments in schools, families, and communities to help alleviate the mental health burden on young girls. Reference Demkowicz, O., Jefferson, R., Nanda, P. et al. Adolescent girls’ explanations of high rates of low mood and anxiety in their population: a co-produced qualitative study. BMC Women's Health 25 , 49 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03517-x
• Appearance-related cyberbullying: Stopping the harm before adolescent girls resort to dieting, changing their appearance and cosmetic surgery

  Prince, T., Mulgrew, K. E., Driver, C., Mills, L., Loza, J., & Hermens, D. F. (2024) 2024

  Educators are well aware of the ongoing risks cyberbullying poses to students, not least via its impact on wellbeing and mental health. A new study led by researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, is the first of its kind to ever consider “appearance-related cyberbullying” (ARC) and how it affects adolescent girls’ mental health and wellbeing (Prince et al., 2024; Fowles, 2024). ARC is important to consider as a specific type of cyberbullying because of its unique impact on adolescent girls’ perceptions of their own bodies in addition to their mental health and wellbeing. Acts of ARC are predominantly targeted towards body shape and size, resulting in a significant impact on girls’ concerns surrounding “body shape, body shame, and eating disorder symptomology” (Prince et al., 2024, p. 1). It has also been proven to lead to a drastic rise in the number of girls who wish to undertake extreme diet changes, excessive exercise, surgical and cosmetic procedures, and changes to self-presentation in order to alter their appearance. Knowing how to address this type of cyberbullying will be an important part of the educator’s toolkit as they support girls to navigate the increasingly complex, and often confrontational, online world. This is one of the first articles to be released from this project, and focuses on girls aged between 14 and 19 years. Surveys were used to assess experiences of ARC, and considered victimisation, body satisfaction, body esteem, body shame, body appreciation, and symptoms of eating disorders. These factors all have significant impacts on adolescent girls’ mental health and wellbeing (International Coalition of Girls’ Schools, 2024a, 2024b, 2024c). The impact of bullying and cyberbullying on girls’ mental health is already well-known. Likewise, the high numbers of adolescent girls who report body dissatisfaction has also been widely recognised (Prince et al., 2024). Girls are also more likely to be victims of cyberbullying than boys (Prince et al., 2024, p. 2). This project goes further than existing research by specifically considering ARC. It can lead to higher levels of emotional distress and depression, lower levels of self-esteem, an ongoing perpetuation of unrealistic and negative beauty standards, and a greater risk of body dissatisfaction, body shame, and body image concerns. Addressing these issues will help support adolescent girls to develop and maintain healthy attitudes towards their own body image and appearance. The project found that ARC is typically focussed on very specific issues, most notably, physical appearance (including body shape and size). “Fatness” and “thinness” were two of the most commonly targeted physical traits. Other features that were used in ARC victimisation more frequently when compared to general cyberbullying included body attributes “such as breasts and bottom, facial appearance, clothing or style… scars, burns, skin conditions… and body tone and muscularity” (Prince et al., 2024, p. 7). Other factors that were targeted, but not as frequently, included “age, skin colour and disabilities” (Prince et al., 2024, p. 8). The project showed that 96.2 per cent of participants who had been victims of ARC wanted to engage in excessive dieting or exercise to change their body shape, size and physical appearance. Concerningly, 95.2 per cent also said they would like to change their self-presentation by altering their hair, makeup or clothing. Cometic and surgical procedures were also considered, with 81.3 per cent of girls in the study saying that they felt they needed these procedures to change how they looked after experiencing ARC. Taliah Prince and the other researchers who have collaborated on this research indicate that a collaborative approach involving schools, parents and social media platforms is the most effective way to address this problem. Within this context, they have provided strategies educators can use to help address the risks ARC poses to adolescent girls. These strategies go beyond addressing the impact of ARC on girls’ mental health, and are designed to be preventative. This includes the specific development of age-appropriate social media policies in schools. They also suggest the introduction of “health promotion programs that encourage positive online behaviour” (Prince et al., 2024, pp. 1, 12). By addressing the impact of ARC before it begins to negatively affect girls’ wellbeing, the researchers suggest we can improve outcomes for adolescent girls who are being increasingly exposed to cyberbullying that targets their vulnerabilities and unrealistic beliefs about appearance and beauty standards. References Fowles, T. (2024, September 6). Research reveals cyberbullying is pushing teenage girls towards cosmetic procedures . University of the Sunshine Coast Australia. Retrieved 6 September 2024, from https://www.usc.edu.au/about/unisc-news/news-archive/2024/september/research-reveals-cyberbu
• Text-based interactions in Instagram: The impact of text and perceptions on girls’ wellbeing (ICGS, 2025)

  (2025) 2025

  Paddock, D. L., Cassarly, J., & Bell, B. T. (2025). “OMG you look amazing”: A systematic examination of the text-based interactions surrounding UK adolescent girls’ self-images on Instagram. Body Image, 52 , 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101839 . Researchers from the UK have focussed on adolescent girls’ use of Instagram to gain a better understanding of how girls engage with visual social media platforms and the impact of this engagement on body image, self-objectification and self-presentation. This is a critical area of research given the proven impact that image-based social media platforms can have on girls’ wellbeing (ICGS, 2025; Paddock et al., 2025, p. 1). This new research is innovative and important for educators because it explores girls’ experiences with publicly available image-based content beyond engagement with images alone. It extends to incorporate girls’ use of text-based interactions and commenting and considers how this impacts girls’ experiences of body dissatisfaction. While visual content is central to image-based platforms, they are also designed to encourage engagement and interaction via text. This typically occurs in the form of commenting. Understanding how these text-based interactions occur alongside images on platforms such as Instagram will play a crucial role in better understanding the impact of this content on girls’ wellbeing. Research has shown that appearance commentary on social media can have profound influences on adolescent girls and young women, especially in the areas of body image concerns and self-objectification (Paddock et al., 2025, p. 2). Social media has rapidly developed as a “primary communication tool for adolescents”, which makes this a vital consideration, especially for girls (Paddock et al., 2025, p. 2). This article focusses on “highly public and permanent Instagram posts, which are usually shared within a large network, making the interactions surrounding them inherently performative and aimed at a broader audience” (Paddock et al., 2025, p. 2). This includes responses to posts that may occur over time, and not immediately following the initial upload of content. Girls from cities across England were included in the study, which was based on interviews combined with analysis of actual content posted on girls’ Instagram accounts. The girls who participated all had “private” Instagram accounts, and many were already engaging “in a process of self-curation wherein they deleted or archived previous posts” (Paddock et al., 2025, p. 3). The researchers analysed the girls’ social media content according to four themes: Images of the participant, captions posted with the image, direct comments on the image, and first replies from the participant to any of these direct comments. The researchers identified several categories of content consistent across the project. Image content uploaded by girls included “selfies”, “groupies” and a mixture of these within the one post. Captions on these posts were then categorised as non-appearance related, appearance-related, self-deprecating appearance remarks, positive appearance remarks, neutral appearance remarks, emoji only (no text) and no caption. Direct comments on posts were observed to contain four types of compliments based on appearance, performance, possessions and personality. “First replies” to these comments were considered to fall into a range of categories that included denial, empathy, probing/asking questions, reciprocation and gratitude. Based on observations around these themes, the authors observed common ways that adolescent girls typically interact with self-images on social media. These interactions are complex, influenced by societal norms and self-presentational strategies, and have implications for girls’ wellbeing. While comments on self-images are typically related to appearance and are positive, it is important to remember that adolescents often curate their posts so that only content with positive comments remain. This typically occurs as part of a broader self-presentational strategy. Negative comments may still be present, but are often seen in private channels such as direct messaging, and therefore do not form part of this analysis of “public-facing, highly curated Instagram posts” (Paddock et al., 2025, p. 8). The types of comments observed in this study were different from those found in previous research. Whereas previous studies found comments focussed on weight and other specific appearance-related attributes, this research found compliments were more generalised about appearance, and included very limited comments (if any) on weight. In fact, girls in the project were “hyper aware of a compliment culture wherein general appearance compliments can have a positive impact on the receiver, whilst simultaneously recognising that specific appearance compliments may impact the receiver negatively by reinforcing an appearance ideal” (Paddock et al., 2025, p. 9). T