We have seen historical gender gaps shrinking across many of the indicators we track on Minnesota Compass. Larger shares of women enroll in and graduate from college, and employment gaps between women and men have narrowed. However, when we look at Minnesota’s adolescent girls, we see some worrying signs around social connection and feelings of safety.
Girls fare better on many academic measures
Minnesota girls have slightly better outcomes than boys across many academic measures. For example:
- A slightly greater share of girls meet 3rd grade reading standards, compared to boys.
- Equivalent shares of girls and boys meet 8th grade math standards.
- A slightly greater share of girls graduate from high school on time, compared to boys.
- More girls than boys enroll in postsecondary education, and they go on to graduate at a higher rate.
Yet, even as girls edge ahead in the classroom, we see red flags concerning their social and emotional well-being. On two measures that Minnesota Compass tracks – feelings of safety at school and connection to caring adults – we see girls’ well-being drop as they enter adolescence, and at a much faster rate than boys.
Smaller shares of adolescent girls feel safe at school
The vast majority of Minnesota’s students – 87% – feel safe at school. But the percentages are lower for adolescent girls.
- Compared to younger girls: Shares of girls in middle and high school grades who feel safe at school are 7-8 percentage points lower than among girls in elementary school.
- Compared to boys in the same grade: Feelings of safety among adolescent boys remain steady across middle and high school grades, while they are noticeably lower among adolescent girls.
Additionally, the trend is pointing in the wrong direction. While 93% of girls reported feeling safe at school in 2016, that percentage dropped to 85% by 2022.
Smaller shares of adolescent girls feel connected to caring adults
About half of Minnesota’s students – 54% – report feeling that teachers, school staff, and other adults in the community care about them. But here again, smaller shares of adolescent girls feel connected to a caring, non-family adult:
- Compared to younger girls: Three-quarters of girls in 5th grade feel connected to a caring adult, but less than half of girls in middle and high school grades report the same.
- Compared to boys in the same grade: In middle and high school grades, smaller shares of all students – but especially girls – feel connected to caring adults. Across these grades, shares are markedly lower among girls than among boys in the same grade.
As with feelings of safety, this trend for adolescent girls is pointing in the wrong direction. In 2016, 59% of girls reported feeling connected to a caring adult, but that percentage has since dropped to 50%.
Adolescent girls are engaged in activities – that just doesn’t seem to be enough
Minnesota girls across grade levels participate in extracurriculars at a slightly higher rate than boys, with about 2 in 3 girls reporting that they participate in sports, clubs, and lessons three days a week or more. It is also encouraging that girls continue to stay highly engaged outside of school through middle and high school.
That level of engagement gives girls a source of external connection, and a “third space” to be safe outside of home and school. But we can see from the other measures we track that that involvement isn’t enough to keep adolescent girls feeling safe and valued.
Keeping an eye on warning signs as we look ahead
We all share a responsibility to foster adolescent girls’ feelings of safety and connection. The Mental Health Coalition organizes strategies into things we can do on an individual level, on an interpersonal level, and on a systemic level.
On individual and interpersonal levels:
- The Search Institute identifies five strategies to help adults strengthen and deepen their relationships with young people.
- UCLA Health offers four suggestions to help parents and caregivers connect with teenage girls around mental health challenges.
- On the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) blog, Sophie Szew implores readers to validate and address the challenges girls experience in adolescence, rather than chalking their experiences up to hormones or a “normal part of growing up.”
On a systemic level:
- In their most recent review of data, the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota’s Status of Women and Girls+ in Minnesota project concludes that “women and girls in Minnesota are harmed by gender-based violence across their lifetimes.” They recommend prevention, education, and solutions guided by women and girls+ themselves, and that address racial disparities in school discipline, violence, and trafficking.
- The Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent Health offers detailed action steps to strengthen systems and structures that support young people throughout the state.
- An advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General calls attention to the positive and negative impacts that social media can have on children and adolescents, with guidance on mitigating the potential harms of social media.
Being safe at school and connected to caring adults are among the positive supports that have been shown to help with youth resilience and success, in the present and in the future. Our data point to the fact that merely engaging girls in out-of-school activities is not enough, but that intentional efforts – like those listed above – need to be made to ensure girls feel safe and connected both in and out of school.
