High school girls have it worse than boys when it comes to bullying, and other matters, says a Statistics Canada study released on Pink Shirt Day.
As people across Canada donned pink shirts for the annual event designed to combat bullying in schools, the study showed that 43 per cent of 13-year-old girls reported being bullied in the previous couple of months, according to data collected by the World Health Organization (WHO) from 2013 and 2014.
That was more than the 33 per cent of boys who experienced that level of bullying at the same age.
The numbers represent a spike from when they’re 11 years old: 39 per cent of girls at that age reported being bullied at least once in the previous months, while bullying was higher for boys at this age (38 per cent).
A higher prevalence of bullying also coincided with an age at which many Canadian girls are attending high school.
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This data, and much more, was contained in a report titled “The Girl Child,” which explored various topics related to girls and their well-being.
It also looked at areas such as mental health, education and family violence.
The report showed that bullying went down for both girls and boys when they reached the age of 15 — though it remained higher for the former.
Thirty-two per cent of girls at this age reported having been bullied within the last couple of months, compared to 29 per cent of boys.
Girls were also over-represented when it came to cyberbullying.
Sixteen per cent of girls aged 15 to 17 said they had been cyberbullied in the past five years, compared to 12 per cent of boys, according to data from 2014.
Of those who had been cyberbullied, 37 per cent of girls said they experienced it at least once in the past year, compared to 29 per cent of boys.
Survey respondents aged 15 and over were asked whether they had been victimized online.
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About half of female victims (48 per cent) said they had been targeted by “threatening or aggressive comments spread through group emails, instant messages or postings on Internet sites,” next to 37 per cent of boys.
Meanwhile, almost 30 per cent of female victims said they faced other forms of cyberbullying, such as having threatening or embarrassing photos shared with other people, or their identity stolen in order to post information about them. Twenty-six per cent of boys reported experiencing this kind of bullying.
Family violence
Girls also made up a higher proportion of victims of family violence that had been reported to the police.
Family violence was defined as a broad cross-section of criminal offences, including homicide, sexual violence and uttering threats, in which the victim had either been related to the perpetrator, or else been their foster child or adopted daughter or son.
At 289.1 per 100,000 population, girls faced a higher likelihood of family violence, while for boys it was 189.7 per 100,000 population, in 2014.
The risk of facing family violence peaked for both genders at the age of 15. It was 534.6 per 100,000 population for girls and 247.5 per 100,000 population for boys.
Girls were particularly over-represented when it came to sexual violence. At 121.8 per 100,000 population, the rate was four times higher for girls than it was for boys (28.5 per 100,000 population).
The rate of police-reported family violence against girls was highest in Nunavut, where it was 1,840 per 100,000 population in 2014.
But the gulf between family violence against boys and girls was widest in the Yukon. The rate was 2.4 times higher for girls than it was for boys.
Mental health
Girls generally reported higher stress at various ages, too.
Just over 17 per cent of girls aged 12 to 17 years old reported that their lives were stressful on most days. That was twice as many as it was for boys (9.3 per cent).
High levels of stress were more likely among girls aged 15 to 17, as 23.5 per cent of them reported experiencing stress on most days, more than double the amount for boys (11.8 per cent).
Almost twice as many girls aged 15 to 17 reported having been diagnosed with a mood disorder (7.3 per cent) as boys of the same age did (3.8 per cent).
Anxiety disorders were also more common among 15-to-17-year-old girls (9.6 per cent) than boys (6.3 per cent).
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Some school experiences, however, brought more positive stats for girls.
Girls were more confident about their achievement in school at various age levels. About 80 per cent of 11-year-old girls rated their scholarly achievement as “good” or “very good,” compared to 75 per cent of boys.
This level dropped to 75 per cent for 13-year-old girls, though that was still higher than it was for boys of that age (66 per cent).
Seventy-one per cent of 15-year-old girls, meanwhile, thought highly of their achievement in school, compared to 64 per cent of boys.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that of those who reported being cyberbullied, 37 per cent of girls and 29 per cent of boys said it happened to them in the previous year. In fact, 16 per cent of girls aged 15 to 17 said they had been cyberbullied in the past five years, compared to 12 per cent of boys, according to data from 2014. Of those who had been cyberbullied, 37 per cent said they experienced it at least once in the past year, compared to 29 per cent of boys. Also, the previous version misstated the proportion of male victims of threatening or aggressive comments. It previously said 29 per cent; it was, in fact, 37 per cent.
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