Gender differences in mental health problems among adolescents and the role of social support: results from the Belgian health interview surveys 2008 and 2013

Table 1 Descriptive statistics (column percentages)

	Male %	Female %	Total %
Year
2008	60.6	56.1	58.3
2013	39.4	43.9	41.7
Gender
Male	/	/	49.8
Female	/	/	50.2
Age
15–19	42.4	38.6	40.5
20–25	57.6	61.4	59.5
Highest educational level within the household
Secondary education or lower	58.8	58.6	58.7
At least higher education	41.2	41.4	41.3
Appreciation social contact
Rather unsatisfied	6.2	5.4	5.8
Rather satisfied	93.8	94.6	94.2
Quality of social support
Poor support	12.3	13.6	13.0
Intermediate/strong support	87.7	86.4	87.0
Reported equivalent household income (Belgian Weighted quintiles – m(S.D.))	2.86 (1.44)	2.81 (1.44)	2.84 (1.44)
Psychological distress^a (1–12) M(S.D.)	1.13 (2.11)	1.71 (2.48)	1.42 (2.32)
Depression^a (1-5) M(S.D.)	1.27 (0.40)	1.45 (0.57)	1.36 (0.50)
Anxiety^a (1-5) M(S.D.)	1.21 (0.37)	1.35 (0.55)	1.28 (0.47)
Total N	713	720	1433

^aMeans between girls and boys on these scales differ significantly, that is, p < 0.000 (ANOVA with post hoc Bonferroni test)

ISSN: 1471-244X