Girlguiding UK - Teenage Mental Health: Girls Shout Out!

Welcome to Teenage mental health: Girls shout out!, the third research report in Girlguiding UK’s Girls shout out! series.

As the largest organisation for girls and young women in the UK today, Girlguiding UK has a unique and important opportunity to speak out about issues of direct concern to young women.

It was in this spirit that we launched Girls shout out!, to find out more about our young members’ views on the issues they tell us matter to them most and to ensure their voices are heard in the public debates that affect their lives.

For our third report we have partnered with a leading UK charity, the Mental Health Foundation, to explore what girls and young teenagers really think and feel about the many different emotions experienced by young women today.

The research was carried out by pollsters Opinion Leader through a series of in-depth focus groups with girls between the ages of ten and 14 and we also ran a survey on our website. Girlguiding UK chose to speak to girls of this age to help shed light on some of the factors and experiences that can help influence girls’ outlook and well-being as they move into their teenage years. All participants are members of Girlguiding UK.

Teenage mental health: Girls shout out! is an investigation into girls’ experiences of both hard-to-manage and challenging feelings and recognised mental health problems. The report considers a new generation of potential triggers for mental health problems in girls – premature sexualisation, commercialisation and alcohol misuse – and also some of the more longstanding issues like bullying and family breakdown. It examines the impact of such factors on girls’ feelings and behaviour at home and in their communities, and asks young women themselves what might be done to help.

Download your copy: Teenage mental health: Girls shout out! (PDF 1MB)