Research: Boys More Vulnerable They Suffer More Than Girls When Separated From Mom
Are little boys more fragile than little girls? Emotionally, at least?
That question - and its apparent reversal of gender stereotypes - has gained new attention after a recent national report suggesting that time away from the mother may be harder on boys than girls.
It’s not the first time that researchers have puzzled over the issue. A study in the 1960s found that if mothers were indifferent and hostile to their children during the first 18 months, there was a measurable drop later in the IQ of the boys but not the girls.
Other studies show a similar pattern emerging in later years. Boys develop more severe behavioral problems than girls after divorce or the death of a parent; and widowers tend to be depressed and emotionally unstable far longer than widows after death of a spouse.
“There’s plenty of evidence over the whole life that males have a more vulnerable biology,” says Jay Belsky, one of the collaborators in the federal Study of Early Child Care. “They succumb to all sorts of things faster than females. In that context, it might make sense that they would be more vulnerable to the stress of a separation.”
Belsky, distinguished professor of human development at Pennsylvania State University, found a similar gender gap in a smaller study focusing on the effects of day care, published in 1988. He found that being away from home also tended to impair boys’ - but not girls’ - relationships with their fathers.
Colleague Kathleen McCartney, a professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire, agreed: “Boys tend to be more vulnerable to a whole spectrum of psycho-social stresses than girls.”
The first phase of the study, which will continue for five years, looked at 1,300 families, following infants from 1 month old.
The results of the first phase were reported in late April. They focused on the child’s attachment to its mother at 15 months of age, and compared the strength of the mother-child bond between kids in day care and those who were looked after at home.
The next phase will look at differences in cognitive development.
The overwhelming finding from phase one was that a loving, attentive and concerned mother tends to forge a secure bond with her child, whether or not she uses day care.
“The effect of whether you work or not is relatively small,” said Alison Clarke-Stewart, professor of human development at the University of California, Riverside, another member of the child care study group. “The biggest difference is how the mother behaves with the child.”
Among baby boys whose mothers worked more than 30 hours a week, 58 percent showed a secure attachment. When they were compared with youngsters whose mothers left their children no more than 10 hours a week, it was found that 65 percent of boys had secure attachments to their mothers.
The statistics went in the opposite direction for girls. Sixty-six percent of the daughters of working mothers showed secure attachment, compared with 58 percent for girls kept at home.