Young boys call helpline to discuss sex more often than girls

print this

Young boys in particular have need of support and candid discussions with adults about issues related to growing up.
      This can be concluded from the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare (MLL) statistics, according to which a typical person to call the child and youth helpline is an 11 to 13-year-old boy. Girls, in turn, unburden themselves by writing to the Internet.
     
A young boy usually calls the helpline either to test the adult person on duty or to ask about sex. "For example, the boy may start off with an indecent proposal, and only after the adult at the other end of the line has been tested does a serious question follow, say, about the length of the penis", MLL analyst Anne Ryhänen explains.
      Last year the MLL child and youth helpline was contacted either by telephone or via the Internet around 55,000 times. Jammed switchboards prevented an even greater number of attempts from getting through.
      Compared to the year before, the share of boys among all those who contacted the MLL helpline is on the increase. Two thirds of callers of different ages were boys. In most cases boys need counselling in issues related to their sexuality.
      MLL emphasises that in both home upbringing and school education youth sexuality should be addressed more.
     
In the adults' view the way boys manifest their insecurities is often more difficult than that of girls. Boys tend to provoke, to rely on their friends for refuge, and behave arrogantly.
      Adults also often react to provocation in the wrong way: either by downplaying the situation in a patronising manner, or by accusing, getting angry, or getting upset. The correct way would be to put up with the boys' strong emotions, to listen to them, and to give them space.
      "Boys should also be given health information in their own language at every developmental stage", psychologist Marjo Kankkonen adds.
      In the same class in school there may be boys who still concentrate on comparing their mobile phones, while others "are already dating their third girlfriend".
      "Health and sex education should be repeated throughout the entire period of adolescence. If boys talk about 'dick', the counsellor might be better advised to use the same word instead of 'penis'. Making jokes [about subjects that would otherwise be difficult] is also part of the language of young boys", Anne Ryhänen notes.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Student organisations want more effective sex education (10.11.2006)

Links:
  The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare

Helsingin Sanomat