Gender socialization processes and adolescent health in Spain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70478/apuntes.psi.2025.43.09Keywords:
Health, Adolescence, Gender inequalities, Gender socializationAbstract
Introduction. Gender differences in adolescent health are relevant for their current development and also for their future health. This paper analyzes psychosocial health indicators differentially for boys and girls in order to detect specific areas in need of attention and intervention.
Methods. The sample is composed of 33194 adolescents aged 11 to 18 years from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC)-2022 study in Spain.
Results. Adolescent girls show unfavorable results compared to boys in different health indicators, both in their lifestyles (lower levels of breakfast, physical activity, satisfaction with body image and condom use, and higher use of the contraceptive pill) and mental health (lower levels of health perception, life satisfaction and emotional well-being, and higher levels of psychosomatic symptoms and feelings of loneliness) as well as in the family (lower family satisfaction) and school (higher school stress and lower satisfaction with relationships with classmates). In addition, the gender gap has grown in 2022 compared to 2018.
Discussion. The results are discussed and proposals for gender inequalities prevention in different developmental contexts in adolescence are presented.
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