Males are more vulnerable than females from the moment they are conceived, meaning parents should treat them more sensitively than they do, researchers said on Friday.

Sebastian Kraemer, consultant psychiatrist at the Tavistock and Portman National Health Service Trust in England, said people were still ignorant of the biological and social disadvantages faced by the supposedly stronger sex.

"The attitude still is that if he is a boy then he will be a bit tougher," he told Reuters. Kraemer's study, "The Fragile Male", was published in the British Medical Journal.

Kraemer's research showed that the male foetus is at greater risk of death or damage, and by the time the baby is born a boy is four to six weeks less developed than a girl.

Boys generally face more psychological problems during their early upbringing and require attention, making them more vulnerable to poor parental care.

The fact that they are often treated as more resilient than their sisters means that they suppress some faculties.

"There is a social pressure not to let boys be too weak and to toughen them up," Kraemer said. "A boy who is full of sensitivity and vulnerability will have shut down a lot of his faculties within the first two years."

The biological disadvantages and those related to how males are treated in society and the family do not stop at childhood.

Girls outperform boys at school -- 43 percent of British boys get grade "C" or above at the GSCE exams they take aged 16, compared with over 53 percent of girls.

Suicides are three times as common among males than among females.

"If parents were more aware of male sensitivity, they might change the way they treat their sons," Kraemer said. "The traditional attitude that 'boys will be boys' needs exploring further."

(From ChinaDaily)