Epidemiology of Mental Health Disorders in Female Children and Adolescents

Mental health disorders are a public health emergency yet they remain underdiagnosed, undertreated, and under-resourced despite their high prevalence and role as a leading cause of disability globally. As mental health disorders can begin in early life, the purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the epidemiology of mental health disorders in children and adolescents globally and its impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular emphasis on female differences regarding prevalence, presentation, disparities, trajectory across the lifespan, and implications for women’s behavioral health. The chapter focuses on common psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents and those with notable disproportionate disease burden in females including depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, eating disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Epidemiology of suicide was also addressed given its severity and high prevalence among adolescents.