The BBC says a Children’s Society report has noted an increase in unhappiness in adolescent girls.
Researchers from the Society and the University of York found that between 2009-10 and 2013-14 on average 11% of both boys and girls said they were unhappy.
But the latest available figures, for 2013-14, showed while the proportion of unhappy boys stayed the same, girls saying they were unhappy had risen to 14%.
LOOKS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
The proportion of girls reporting being worried about their looks rose from 30% for the period as a whole, to 34% in the year 2013-14 – while the proportion of boys unhappy with their appearance remained unchanged at 20%.
Most of the comments from girls stress the difficulty of competing with the looks of models or celebrities, but what has changed appears to be the increased intrusion of social media. Girls are spending on up to three hours a night on Facebook and Instagram. They can now post pictures or videos instantly from mobile devices.
School sex education is also increasing the pressure on girls to be sexually attractive and even active. And the report completely fails to mention family breakdown, which has resulted in so many children growing up without their father. It doesn’t mention the specific importance of a father in a child’s life either.
EMOTIONAL BULLYING HIGHER AMONG GIRLS
The report found emotional bullying, such as name-calling, to be twice as common among girls as physical bullying is among boys.
There are clearly things parents can do here. The Bible lays great weight on the parent-child relationship:
Deuteronomy 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
INVEST TIME IN YOUR CHILDREN
It is too easy in a busy life for parents to allow a child to disappear to his or her room and get online or even, with the way technology is moving, to sit in the family room tapping away on a tablet.
Christian parents in particular need to watch that tendency in themselves and invest time in their children. Find out what your children are doing, be supportive and gentle, encourage them. You need to be praying over your children, and your husband or wife for that matter, blessing them with good word and compliments, never cursing them, but building them up as the word of God commands:
1Thess 5:11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. 14 … warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all.
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