HHS HealthBeat (August 23, 2006)

Boys talk about love

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Teenage boys can act tough, but they have feelings, too. Peggy Giordano of Bowling Green State University in Ohio bases that on a look at interviews in which some 1,300 junior high and high school boys talked about their relationships with girls.

The study in the American Sociological Review was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Giordano says the boys revealed a tender side, along with uncertainty about how to show it. It's an awkward age for both sexes, but Giordano says boys probably had less practice in one-to-one relationships. She thinks boys – and girls, too – could benefit from hanging out together, without romance:

"I think this provides a comfortable forum for them to explore intimacy – to see how a boy is, to see how a girl is – without the pressure." (nine seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: September, 26 2006