Gender Differences in Youth Mental Health Referrals: Variation Across General Practitioners

Abstract

We study how general practitioners (GPs) refer boys and girls with behavioral complaints. Boys and girls express mental health symptoms differently, possibly contributing to the gender gap attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses. As the first point of contact and gatekeeper to specialist care, GPs play an important role in timely detection of ADHD and subsequent care trajectories. We link GP records to other administrative data sources to estimate GP practice-level propensities to refer boys and girls differently, assuming that gender differences in symptom severity are constant across practices. Preliminary results indicate that girls aged 11–17 registered at GPs who refer boys more frequently than girls are less likely to receive ADHD medication, while no differences are observed for younger children. For educational outcomes, younger boys show no differences in entry into the highest level of secondary education when registered with GPs who refer girls more often. In contrast, girls are slightly less likely to enter the highest education track when registered with GPs who refer boys more than girls. These findings suggest that gender-based referral patterns can shape care and educational trajectories for girls.