脆弱的美國男孩們 越貧窮越容易掉隊

Boys are falling behind. They graduate from high school and attend college at lower rates than girls and are more likely to get in trouble, which can hurt them when they enter the job market. This gender gap exists across the United States, but it is bigger for poor people and black people. As society becomes more unequal, it seems, it hurts boys more.

男孩落後了。相比女孩，男孩高中畢業和上大學的比率更低，也更容易惹上麻煩，這將不利於他們進入就業市場。全美國都出現了這種性別差異，在窮人和黑人身上更嚴重。現在看來，隨着社會變得越來越不平等，男孩受到的傷害似乎更多。

New research from social scientists offers one explanation: Boys are more sensitive than girls to disadvantage. Any disadvantage, like growing up in poverty, in a bad neighborhood or without a father, takes more of a toll on boys than on their sisters. That realization could be a starting point for educators, parents and policymakers who are trying to figure out how to help boys — particularly those from black, Latino and immigrant families.

新的社會科學研究能爲這種現象提供一個解釋：男孩比女孩對不利因素更敏感。任何不利因素，如成長過程中家境貧困、生活在不良的社區、沒有父親，對男孩的影響都比對其姊妹的影響來得大。對教育人士、家長和決策者來說，這個發現能作爲一個起點，有助他們找出幫助男孩（尤其是黑人、拉美和移民家庭中的男孩）的方法。

“It's something about family disadvantage itself,” said David Figlio, a Northwestern University economist and co-author of a new paper, presented publicly for the first time on Thursday. “Black people in America are more disadvantaged than white people in America, and if we were to reduce the disadvantage, we may see a reduction in the relative gender gap as well.”

“這是由於家庭本身的不利因素，”西北大學(Northwestern University)的經濟學家戴維·費利奧(David Figlio)說，他是週四首次公開發表的新論文的共同作者。“在美國，黑人相比白人要處於弱勢，如果我們減輕這種弱勢，相對的性別差異亦可能減少。”

Marianne Bertrand, an economist at University of Chicago who with Jessica Pan has studied the gender gap, also found that boys fare worse than girls in disadvantaged homes, and are more responsive than girls to parental time and resources. “Their findings were very consistent: Families that invest more in children are protective for boys,” she said.

芝加哥大學(University of Chicago)瑪麗安·伯特蘭德(Marianne Bertrand)和傑西卡·潘(Jessica Pan)一起研究這種性別差異，她亦發現相比起女孩，男孩在弱勢家庭中進展得較差，亦較容易受與父母的時間和資源投入的影響。“他們的研究結果與我們一致：在孩子身上作更多投資的家庭能保護好男孩，”她說。

The reasons that boys react more negatively to disadvantage are varied and hard to pinpoint. Even in utero, boys are more sensitive to extreme stress than girls, and tend to have more unruly temperaments. Society discourages boys from showing vulnerability. Low-income families are often led by single mothers, which has been found to affect boys differently than girls.

男孩對不利因素反應更負面的原因各不相同，難以準確概括。即使是在子宮內，男孩亦比女孩更容易受極端壓力的影響，往往比女孩任性。社會風氣不鼓勵男孩向他人展示脆弱的一面。低收入家庭通常都以單身母親爲首，這樣的家庭對男孩和女孩造成不同的影響。

By the time boys from poor neighborhoods start kindergarten, they are already less prepared than their sisters. The gap keeps widening: They are more likely to be suspended, skip school, perform poorly on standardized tests, drop out of high school, commit crimes as juveniles and have behavioral or learning disabilities.

到了上幼兒園的年齡時，在貧困社區生活的男孩對此所做的準備已經遜色於其姊妹。這種差異持續擴大：他們更容易面對休學、逃學、在標準化測試中表現得較差、高中輟學、青少年犯罪，亦較易有行爲或學習障礙。

Boys tend to have more discipline problems than girls overall. But the difference is much bigger for black and Latino children — and more than half of the difference is because of poverty and related problems, the researchers found. For instance, while boys in well-off families have almost the same test scores as their sisters, the gap is more than three times as large in the most disadvantaged families, the study found. While well-off boys are 3.1 percentage points less likely than their sisters to be ready for kindergarten, the most disadvantaged boys are 8.5 percentage points less likely.

總體來說，男孩比女孩更容易有紀律問題。這種差異在黑人和拉美裔孩子中更大，而且研究人員發現，差異中過半數是因爲貧窮及其他相關問題。例如，研究發現，富裕家庭的男孩擁有跟姊妹差不多一樣的測試分數，但最弱勢的家庭的男女分數差異非常大，超過了三倍。在幼兒園入學準備狀態方面，富裕家庭男孩比姊妹要差3.1%，而條件最不利的男孩比姊妹差8.5%。

The pattern is clear at Astor School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade public school in a low-income part of Portland, Oregon. More than half the students are economically disadvantaged, and nearly half are minorities.

在俄勒岡州波特蘭一個低收入地區，設有從幼兒園到八年級的亞斯特學校(Astor School)中便能明顯地看到這一規律。該校過半數學生有經濟困難，將近一半學生是少數族裔。

Girls generally enter kindergarten with skills suited to doing well in school, like sitting still and using a pencil, while many boys act younger, having trouble listening to adults and controlling their impulses, said Jeff Knoblich, the school counselor.

學校輔導員傑夫·克諾布里希(Jeff Knoblich)指，在進幼兒園時，女孩通常已有在學校表現好所需的技能，如安靜坐着和使用鉛筆，而多數男孩則表現得較幼稚，在聆聽成人說話和抑制衝動方面有問題。

“Boys get a message from a very young age to be a man, and to be a man means you're strong and you don't cry and you don't show your emotions,” he said. “I see boys suffering because of that, and a lot of that comes out in aggressive behaviors.”

“男孩年紀小小就開始接收到要做個男子漢的訊息，而做個男子漢意味着你要強大，你不能哭，你不能表達自己的情緒，”他說。“我看到過很多男孩爲此感到痛苦，很多這種痛苦以好鬥行爲的形式表現了出來。”

Problems in elementary school have long-term effects. Early suspensions are strongly correlated with not graduating from high school. The modern economy relies on skills like cooperation, empathy and resilience — and many boys are entering the workforce poorly equipped to compete.

小學階段的問題有長遠的影響。早期休學跟高中輟學間有密切關係。現代經濟十分依賴合作、同理心和應變能力等技能。然而，在進入勞動市場時，許多男孩都未有裝備好這些技能去跟別人競爭。

The researchers — who also included David Autor and Melanie Wasserman of MIT, Krzysztof Karbownik of Northwestern and Jeffrey Roth of the University of Florida — examined various reasons boys could be falling behind. By analyzing brothers and sisters in about 150,000 households using databases from the health and education departments in Florida, they could control for differences in families.

研究人員——包括麻省理工學院的戴維·奧特(David Autor)和梅蘭妮·瓦瑟曼(Melanie Wasserman)、美國西北大學的剋日什托夫·卡波夫尼克(Krzysztof Karbownik)和佛羅里達大學的傑弗裏·羅斯(Jeffrey Roth )——檢查了各種會導致男孩落後的原因。通過分析約15萬個家庭中兄弟姐妹的數據，他們可以對比在不同家庭之間的差異。數據由佛羅里達州衛生和教育部門提供。

They concluded that boys aren't born this way. Babies of low-income mothers are less healthy, but the boys are not worse off than the girls.

他們的結論是，男孩不是一出生就這樣的。低收入母親的嬰兒都不太健康，但男孩並不差於女孩。

Though disadvantaged children are likelier to be in underperforming schools or neighborhoods with drugs and violence, this alone does not explain the gender gap, the researchers said. Even in the same neighborhood and schools and for children of the same race, the gender gap is wider in less-advantaged families.

研究人員說，雖然弱勢兒童更有可能入讀或住在表現不佳的學校或充斥着毒品和暴力的社區，但僅此並不能解釋性別差異。即使在同一社區、學校和同種族的兒童，弱勢家庭的性別差距也更大。

“Boys particularly seem to benefit more from being in a married household or committed household — with the time, attention and income that brings,” Autor said.

“已婚或關係穩固的家庭，對男孩似乎格外有助益——這類家庭有更多時間、關注和收入，”奧特說。

The researchers compared families based on whether the parents were single or coupled, the education level of the mother, income of the neighborhood and quality of the school. They said they could not isolate which variable mattered most, probably because they are all intertwined.

研究人員根據父母是否單親或已婚、母親的教育水平、社區的收入和學校的質量來比較家庭。他們說無法找出哪個變量纔是最重要的，可能因爲它們都交織在一起。

But they said there were clues to why boys are extra sensitive to disadvantage. A big one is that impoverished households are more likely to be led by single mothers, and boys suffer from a lack of male role models.

但他們說，有些跡象能說明男生對不利因素格外敏感的原因。其中一個主要原因是貧困家庭更可能只有單身母親，而男孩就缺乏了男性榜樣。

Mothers, especially single mothers, tend to spend more time with daughters than sons. Boys, meanwhile, might need more oversight and discipline to learn things like controlling their emotions and focusing on school.

母親，尤其是單身母親，在女兒與兒子之間，往往花費更多時間與女兒相處。與此同時，男孩卻可能需要更多的監督和紀律去學習控制情緒、注重學業等東西。

For policymakers, Figlio said, the study's results show disadvantage should be taken into account when devising ways to help boys, and gender should be considered when helping poor children, since boys and girls seem to respond differently.

費利奧說，對於決策者來講，這項研究的結果表明，想辦法幫助孩子們時應該考慮到弱勢家庭；而幫助貧困兒童應該考慮到他們的性別，這是因爲男孩和女孩似乎有不同的反應。

For educators, research points to the importance for boys of early interventions, like high-quality preschool and mentoring.

對於教育工作者來講，研究指出如高品質的學前教育和輔導等早期干預對孩子學習的重要性。

For parents, the data shows the payoffs of spending more time with children, especially boys, Bertrand said. For single parents, supporting their families on one income, that might be easier said than done.

對於家長來講，伯特蘭德表示，數據顯示花更多時間與孩子相處會有正面回報，尤其是男孩。而對於單親家庭來講，要靠一份收入支持家庭，這談何容易。