A Study of Mental Health of Secondary School Students with Reference to Gender

Effective strategies for mental disorders prevention and its risk factors' reduction cannot be gender
neutral, while the risks themselves are gender specific. This paper aims to discuss why gender
matters in mental health, to explain the relationship of gender and health-seeking behaviour as a
powerful determinant of gender differences, to examine the gender differences in common mental
health disorders, namely, depressive and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and
domestic violence, and finally, to raise some recommendations stemming from this review. Mental
disorders have become major public health concerns affecting quality of life, work productivity and
life expectancy of a large proportion of the general population. Representative German studies have
shown that approximately one in three women and one in four or five men had a diagnosis of a
mental disorder in the previous 12 months. For most internalizing disorders (e.g., major depression
and eating disorders), women are more frequently affected, whereas for externalizing disorders (e.g.,
substance abuse) men are more frequently affected.