A comparison study*, carried out by the Medical Research Council's social and public health sciences unit at Glasgow University, revealed that of 2,700 teenagers interviewed in 1999, 33 per cent of teenage girls showed symptoms of psychological distress, a significant increase on the 19 per cent in 1987. There was little difference in figures for boys over the same period; around 15 per cent were suffering from stress in 1999 compared with 13 per cent in 1987.
Professor Patrick West, who undertook the study, said: "In the past decade, girls have outperformed boys in nearly every subject academically. However, instead of increasing self-esteem, girls, especially middle-class girls, suffered greater stress due to fear of failure and anxieties about competence."
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