It may be a common connotation that girls need extra TLC during their early years but a research revealed that parents should be more worried about their sons compared to their daughters. There are countless factors as to why boys should get extra attention compared to girls.
Allan N. Schore cited that parents should worry more about their sons during the early years. Psychology Today explained that boys are late bloomers, which means that it takes time for them to fully mature.
Boys are slower in terms of growing physically, socially and even through their verbal skills. Another aspect that is being pointed out is the fact that boys are more fragile compared to girls. In addition, the stress-regulation circuitries take time to mature in boys, as compared to girls.
Boys are also more prone to negative emotions as it was highlighted that they are easily affected by environmental stress during their fatal stage and after they would go out of the womb. Unlike their female counterparts, boys are not equipped to stress as girls have a built-in mechanism that gives them the resiliency to handle stress.
By the time a boy would reach six months, it was explained that they show higher frustration compared to girls. By the time a male child would reach its first year, it was cited that they greatly reach to negative stimuli compared to girls.
Furthermore, it was explained that boys are sensitive to gestational and maternal stress, which means that they are more prone to stress and depression while inside the womb. Due to their sensitivity to negative stimuli, boys are more prone to having attachment trauma, which negatively impacts the right hemisphere of the brain.
"Boys... are more demanding social partners, have more difficult times regulating their affective states," Schore stated. "And may need more of their mothers support to help them regulate affect. This increased demandingness would affect the infant boys' interactive partner."
