WASHINGTON – A generation of parents and educators has pushed to ensure that girls have the same opportunities as their male counterparts, with notable results. In 2007, for example, it was girls who dominated the national math and science competition sponsored by Siemens. But a growing number of reports show that the message of equality may have a downside.
Teenage girls now equal or outpace teenage boys in alcohol consumption, drug use and smoking, national surveys show. The number of girls entering the juvenile justice system has risen steadily over the past few years. A 2006 study that examined accident rates among young drivers noted that although boys get into more car accidents, girls are beginning to close the gap.
“When you take off the shackles, you release all kind of energy – negative and positive,” said James Garbarino, the Maude C. Clarke Chair in Humanistic Psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. “By letting girls loose to experience America more fully, it's not surprising that they would absorb some of its toxic environment.”
Experts say there is no single explanation for why more teenage girls are deciding to experiment with drugs or why some are getting into fights. However, they do note that society's expectations about girlhood have changed over the years. Annette Funicello's wholesome beach blanket antics have given way to Britney Spears' latest meltdown.
“The why of what's happening is in part a direct response to the advances that we're making as a society around gender equity,” said Deborah Prothrow-Stith, a professor of public health at Harvard University. If society offers girls and boys the same opportunities, that means they're exposed to the good as well as the bad, she said.
“We really have to ask the questions, 'Why wouldn't you expect girls to behave (like boys)?' Girls and women are closing all the other gaps,” Prothrow-Stith said.
Experts who work with teenage girls, say more options can also equal more stress. “Our lives are so crazy, and kids are looking for something when they feel” stressed, said Beverly Parker-Lewis, a clinical psychologist with the Fairfax County, Va., public schools.
And teens are surrounded by a mix of messages. On one hand, their parents and teachers tell them not to drink, smoke or do drugs, but on the other hand, music and TV shows such as “Gossip Girl” and “The Hills” show teens indulging in such behavior.
According to a 2006 survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, girls between the ages of 12 and 17 were at equal or higher risk of substance abuse compared with boys. That same year, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy found that the number of girls who smoke or abuse prescription drugs had surpassed that of boys. More troubling: The increase in drug usage among girls comes as overall numbers for teenage drug abuse are declining.
A recent study, conducted by emergency medicine physicians at the Center for Trauma and Injury Prevention Research at the University of California at Irvine medical school, examined accident rates of young drivers between 2000 and 2004 and found that although boys have more accidents, young female drivers appear to be closing the gap.
