Things We Learned Today

By Mimi

It looks like we need to start making a break-up kit for young men. Apparently, when it comes to rocky relationships and break-ups, young men actually suffer more than their female counterparts. According to a recent study by Robin W. Simon, a sociology professor at Wake Forest University, and Anne E. Barrett, a sociologist at Florida State University, “It appears that young men benefit more than women from support, and that they are more harmed than women by strain in ongoing romantic relationships.”

The study surveyed 1,611 men and women age 18 to 23 in the Miami area and found that relationship difficulties took a far greater toll on the men. One of the authors’ hypotheses suggests that while women form bonds with other women and get emotional support in the form of intimate friendships at earlier ages, men are more adrift in their late teens and early 20s.

Or maybe a larger social shift is in the making and men are just becoming more sensitive. It’s possible: up until now, every idea for a man’s version of the break-up kit has involved a bottle of booze and some porn, but if a greater social shift is in the making, then we could be concocting a break-up kit for men that includes hankies, self-help books and sessions of talk therapy. Stay tuned.