Social, emotional and health benefits · ICGS Research Library

Title

Social, emotional and health benefits

Year Published

2024

Description

In a girls’ school where there are no gender stereotypes, no appearance pressures, much lower rates of bullying, and no sexism or sexual harassment, girls are truly free to be who they want to be, both inside and outside the classroom. Studies show that girls are less self-conscious, more confident and less likely to suffer body image pressures or eating disorders in a single-sex environment. They are also far less likely to be bullied by other girls and, without boys in the school, can participate fully in all aspects of school life without worrying about being the subject of sexist or inappropriate comments and behaviour.

• A 2020 analysis of PISA data from 2015 and 2018 on bullying found that, on average, 79% of girls at single-sex schools in Australia and New Zealand never or hardly ever experienced bullying, compared with 71% of girls from co-ed schools. Compared with girls from co-ed schools, students from girls' schools reported:

Never or hardly ever being threatened by other students (89% vs 78%)
Never or hardly ever being the subject of nasty rumours (73% vs 62%)
Never or hardly ever being made fun of by other students (67% vs 57%)

Girls from single-sex schools were also significantly less likely to report being hit or pushed by other students, having belongings taken or destroyed, or being left out of things on purpose (MMG, 2020).

• Mission Australia's 2020 Youth Survey revealed that even during the pandemic year, students at girls’ schools obtained higher scores than the female average in the key areas of mental health and overall life satisfaction. Students attending girls’ schools were less likely to be concerned about their personal mental health than the average female (37.2% vs 43.3%). They were also less likely to be concerned about bullying (9.6% vs 15.1%) and more likely to report feeling happy or very happy with their life as a whole (61.3% vs 54.4% of all girls) (Mission Australia, 2020).

• Two recent reports from the United Kingdom have found that the vast majority of girls are sexually harassed and bullied at school, and that the evidence shows that one-quarter of girls at co-ed schools have experienced unwanted physical touching of a sexual nature while at school (Ofsted, 2021; National Education Union and UK Feminista, 2017).

• A 2016 British Parliament inquiry found that girls in co-ed high schools are subjected to daily sexual harassment (including 29% of girls aged 16-18 who experience unwanted sexual touching at school) and are the victims of implicit bias by teachers who steer girls away from ‘hard’ subjects like advanced maths, physics and computer science (Commons Select Committee [United Kingdom], 2016, September 13).

• A 2016 Australian study, based on a survey administered at five co-educational schools in Adelaide, has confirmed previous research findings that sexual bullying behaviours are commonplace within co-ed schools but that they are often not reported because measures used to quantify bullying in schools do not specifically ask questions about sexual harassment or sexually-toned bullying (Shute, Owens & Slee, 2016; also see, Shute, 2017 ).

• A 2015 report by Britain's Institute of Physics found that co-educational schools need to do more to tackle sexist banter and attitudes that discourage girls from pursuing careers in science. While the Opening Doors report found that all schools had policies to counter racist, sexist and homophobic language, sexist language was often dismissed as "harmless banter" though "many of the students, particularly girls, did not see it as such" and that "in extreme cases, it verged on bullying" (p. 13). Some of the other findings include that:

"Some schools, mindful of bad behaviour from boys, had policies of alternate boy-girl seating, effectively using the girls as buffers to keep the boys apart. In general the girls noticed and resented this policy" (p. 12).
While girls had access to the full range of sporting activities at some schools, in other schools "girls resented being prevented from taking certain sports considered unsuitable for them" (p. 19).

• A US study found that less than 1% of female students in single-sex schools experience bullying , compared with 21% of female students in co-ed schools (Johnson & Gastic, 2014, p. 128). In addition, girls at single-sex schools are not only more likely to be gender nonconforming than girls at co-ed schools (p. 134), but also "significantly less likely to be bullied" (p. 133) for preferring 'masculine' sports (including football, baseball and basketball) over 'feminine' sports and activities (including softball, cheerleading, choir and art classes) (p. 129). In fact, say the authors, "single-sex schools emerge as a protective factor for female gender nonconforming girls" (p. 126).

• A Korean study exploring whether the gender composition of the school environment affects the bullying experiences and behaviours of adolescents has found a