Spoilt little boys grow up to be winners

Men who were mollycoddled as babies are more likely to be successful than those who were taught to be tough, psychiatrists heard yesterday.

Treating boys in a gentle fashion has a permanent, positive effect - creating men 'who are winners at work and in relationships'.

The result is self-confidence that is not based on bluster, Dr Sebastian Kraemer told the Royal College of Psychiatrists' conference in Harrogate.

In a lecture entitled The Fragile Male, he said that if boys are treated like girls as babies they become better at self-control.

'Boys would act more like girls, not in a more feminine way but more like a girl in that they would be able to hold themselves together,' he said.

'They would be less prone to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and would perform better at school.'

Males are more vulnerable from the start, said Dr Kraemer, who works at Whittington Hospital in London.

Research has shown that male foetuses are more likely to die in the womb and, once born, are three weeks behind girls in their development.

'More males are lost or damaged in the womb than girls - everything that can go wrong in obstetrics goes wrong to boys,' said Dr Kraemer.

They are twice as likely as girls to suffer from reading difficulties, autism, Asperger's syndrome and disruptive behaviour.

They were also more psychologically vulnerable to their parents divorcing, or their mother suffering from post natal depression.

In adolescence, more girls than boys self-harm but boys are more violent. Four out of five crimes are committed by men.

Men are more single-minded, and this 'spotlight' mind makes them better at maths and chess. But they often deal with emotional problems through addictions - to work, sex, alcohol, drugs and crime.

Until more baby boys are pampered, the 'ideal male' will continue to be Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter, said Dr Kraemer.

'A lonely cowboy with no name, no relationships, no manners and probably useless as a father'.