More girls said they had been physically abused at home. But the questionnaire did not define abuse, leaving it up to the teens. More girls said that in the past two weeks they've thought of killing themselves but wouldn't do it. What the Commonwealth Fund materials do not mention is that four to five times as many boys as girls actually kill themselves. This may be a genuine difference.
Teen girls tend to respond more intensely to family and social conflicts.
The survey highlights the fact that more girls than boys said that at some point they didn't get medical care when they needed it. Meanwhile, the finding that boys were less likely to have a regular doctor and to have had a medical checkup in the past year got short shrift. Clearly, most problems are shared by both sexes, even if the degrees differ. Yet the Commonwealth Fund report, its policy recommendations and the media coverage focus on girls. Cathy Young is vice-president of the Women's Freedom Network.