2025-09-30 国立精神・神経医療研究センター,東京都医学総合研究所,東京大学
図1: 日本における20歳未満の自殺者数の推移
<関連情報>
- https://www.ncnp.go.jp/topics/detail.php?@uid=B1qMtEfxx2xhISZE
- https://www.ncnp.go.jp/press_search/images/files/20250930_PR2.pdf
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02322-2
女子のメンタルヘルスに迫る静かな危機
The silent crisis in girls’ mental health
Zui C. Narita, Gemma Knowles, Syudo Yamasaki, Kiyoto Kasai & Atsushi Nishida
Nature Human Behaviour Published:30 September 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02322-2
Over the past decades, the gender gap in adolescent mental health has widened globally, and girls increasingly report higher levels of mental health issues than boys. A recent international study using data from over 1.2 million adolescents across 43 countries found that this gap has grown particularly in more gender-equal countries not because boys’ mental health has improved, but because girls’ symptoms have worsened disproportionately1. Another longitudinal cross-cultural study that enrolled adolescents in Tokyo and London found that depressive symptoms among girls increased year by year between ages 12 (2012–2014) and 16 (2018–2020) with no comparable trends among boys — which has resulted in a widening gender gap, although age and calendar-year effects could not be disentangled2.
Traditionally, suicide has been more prevalent among male individuals, both in Japan and internationally. The reversal of this long-standing pattern among children and adolescents in Japan represents a unique concern in youth mental health.
