One in four girls aged 14 suffer from depression

Almost one in four teenage girls are depressed, researchers have found.

Experts found that 24% of 14-year-old girls and 9% of boys the same age are depressed.

The authors said the figures showed “worryingly high rates of depression” among youngsters.

They also questioned whether parents know the true extent of levels of depression among teenage girls after finding a discrepancy between self-reported depressive symptoms and the estimations of parents.

Researchers from the UCL (University College London) Institute of Education and Liverpool University examined data on more than 10,000 children born in 2000/01 who are taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study.

Parents were questioned about their children’s mental health when their youngsters were aged three, five, seven, 11 and 14.

When participants were 14, the children were themselves asked questions about mental health difficulties.

The research, published with the children’s charity the National Children’s Bureau, showed that girls and boys had similar levels of emotional problems throughout childhood until adolescence when problems became more prevalent in girls.

Based on the responses, the researchers calculated that almost a quarter of girls and one in 10 boys aged 14 suffer from depression.