Selfie culture takes toll on young women

RECORD numbers of young women are suffering mental health problems as a “selfie culture” heaps pressures on girls, research has found.

More than one quarter of 16-24-year-old women have a clinically recognised mental health condition and one in four self-harms, according to a major NHS report.

Young women were three times as likely as men to report such symptoms, with rates of 9 per cent among males of the same age.

Experts said young women had emerged as a “high risk” group in the study, which examined the mental health of thousands of Britons, with a culture built on social media appearing to take its toll.

The statistics from NHS Digital show that 26 per cent of women aged between 16 and 24 reported symptoms of common mental health conditions – a rise from 21 per cent when the study was last done, in 2007.

Charities said girls appeared particularly vulnerable to social media, with the “selfie generation” left feeling under pressure over their body image, and falling victim to bullying.

Sally McManus, lead author of the study, from the National Centre for Social Research, said women aged 16 to 24 had “very high rates” of anxiety and depression.

“This is the first cohort to come of age in social media ubiquity. This is the context they are coming into and it warrants further investigation,” she said.

Lauren Chakkalackal of the Mental Health Foundation, said: “When we are looking at social media and the ‘selfie culture’ the problem starts far earlier, and I think that we are going to see these trends continuing.”

She said girls seemed particularly vulnerable to a social media culture which encouraged them to compete with apparently “perfect” lives.

“On social media, they are seeing these edited versions of lives, bikinis, beaches, not seeing the reality,” she said.