Are parents treating their baby boys as they should be? Possibly not. According to Dr. Allan Schore, a clinical psychologist at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), baby boys are much more sensitive than baby girls and develop emotionally at a slower rate. Research has shown that baby boy brains are more vulnerable over a longer period of time to stressors and toxins that can have detrimental consequences on their development.
This difference explains, for example, why boys are more exposed to disorders like autism and ADHD, says Dr. Schore. Girls, for their part, thanks to their faster developing brains and emotions, are more resilient and better equipped to handle tough experiences. So it’s rather ironic that, in stereotypical gender ideals, young girls are generally portrayed as weak and helpless, while their male peers are considered as strong and independent. Studies have provided evidence that baby boys and baby girls are treated differently, both by their parents and teachers, a behavior based more on assumptions rather than on scientific facts.
Picture: The Young Mother, by Mary Cassatt (Wikimedia Commons)
