Gender stereotypes raise HIV, depression, suicide risk in teens

New study finds boys and girls enter teenage with damaging gender stereotypes firmly set.

Whether a child is in Baltimore, Beijing, Nairobi or New Delhi, the onset of adolescence triggers a surprisingly common set of rigidly enforced gender expectations that are linked to increased lifelong risks of everything from HIV and depression to violence and suicide.

That’s the key finding from a groundbreaking 15-country study –the Global Early Adolescent Study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Public health experts across the globe collaborated to learn how an assortment of culturally enforced gender stereotypes long associated with an increased risk of mental and physical health problems become firmly rooted between the ages of 10 and 14. 

“We found children at a very early age—from the most conservative to the most liberal societies—quickly internalise this myth that girls are vulnerable and boys are strong and independent,” said Robert Blum, director of the Global Early Adolescent Study based at Johns Hopkins University.

“And this message is being constantly reinforced at almost every turn, by siblings, classmates, teachers, parents, guardians, relatives, clergy and coaches.”

GENDER ROLES

The findings emerged from a series of comprehensive interviews conducted over the last four years with approximately 450 early adolescents matched with a parent or guardian (totaling nearly 900) in Bolivia, Belgium, Burkina Faso, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Scotland, South Africa, the United States and Vietnam. 

The work shows a need to rethink adolescent health interventions, which typically focus on youth 15 years or older, so that they target a much younger age group.
“Adolescent health risks are shaped by behaviours rooted in gender roles that can be well established in kids by the time they are 10 or 11 years old,” said Kristin Mmari, DrPH, associate professor and lead researcher for the qualitative research at the Global Early Adolescent Study.

“Yet we see billions of dollars around the world invested in adolescent health programmes that don’t kick in until they are 15, and by then it’s probably too late to make a big difference.”

The conversations conducted by the researchers revealed that, around the world, young boys and girls are outfitted with “gender straitjackets” at a very early age, with lifelong negative consequences that are particularly perilous for girls.

The researchers found that gender-based restrictions rationalised as “protecting” girls actually made them more vulnerable by emphasising subservience and implicitly sanctioning even physical abuse as punishment for violating norms.

'FEMININE AND 'MASCULINE' BEHAVIOUR

They observed that “in many parts of the world” these stereotypes leave girls at greater risk of dropping out of school or suffering physical and sexual violence, child marriage, early pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. In all four countries, it appeared to be increasingly acceptable—to varying degrees—for girls to engage in certain stereotypically male behaviours, like wearing pants, playing sports and pursuing careers.

But the researchers report that “boys who challenge gender norms by their dress or behaviour were by many respondents seen as socially inferior.” Both boys and girls told researchers that the consequences for boys who were perceived as adopting feminine behaviour, like painting their nails, ranged from being bullied and teased with harsh epithets to being physically assaulted.

“We know from research studies and programmatic experience that unequal gender norms can be changed, but this takes carefully planned and implemented interventions that target both young people and the environment they are growing and developing in,” said Chandra Mouli, MBBS, co-director and scientist at the Adolescents and at-Risk Populations Team of the World Health Organisation.

Blum rejects the argument that in many parts of the world, gender stereotypes are just part of the traditional culture and are not amenable to change. He noted that, while they still struggle with rigid concepts of gender, in places like the United States and northern Europe, attitudes have changed dramatically in just the last few decades.

“Change can happen, but it requires political will and a variety of interventions,” Blum said. “It also requires the knowledge that children pick up on these gender mythologies at a very young age and they proceed to play out in a variety of ways—often damaging—for the rest of their lives.”

The study was conducted over the past six years by an international consortium to understand how gender norms are formed in early adolescence and how they predispose young people to subsequent sexual and other health risks. As children move into early adolescence and start to develop into young men and women, they also start to take up social roles that are linked to masculinity and femininity.

The roles they take on have huge implications for their own health and well-being and that of people around them.