New York: Boys in low-income urban areas around the world are suffering more than girls from violence, sexual abuse and emotional or physical neglect, suggests a new study.
The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, revealed that boys who suffer from such adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were more likely to become violent as compared to girls. Whereas, girls are more likely to show higher levels of depressive symptoms than boys following traumatic childhood experiences.
“This is the first global study to investigate how a cluster of traumatic childhood experiences known as ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences, work together to cause specific health issues in early adolescence with terrible, life-long consequences,” said lead researcher Robert Blum, Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the US.
“And while we found young girls often suffer significantly, contrary to common belief, boys reported even greater exposure to violence and neglect, which makes them more likely to be violent in return,” Blum added.
The study’s findings showed that 46 per cent of young adolescents reported experiencing violence, 38 per cent suffered emotional neglect and 29 per cent experienced physical neglect. However, boys were more likely to report being victims of sexual abuse and violence.
