Today’s New York Times has a fantastic article about the research of New York University’s professor in developmental psychology, Niobe Way.  Dr. Way writes about the significance of close friendships between boys, and the heartbreak that results when boys lose those friendships, as they often do when they enter their mid-teens.  She urges us to create a cultural climate that allows boys to love their friends.  In my own research, I find that US parents and teens tend to characterize boys as heartless, and just driven by hormones, in their pursuit of sex.  But many US boys have a strong desire for romantic intimacy (see for example the young man featured in an earlier blog post).  Dr. Way’s research gives us important insights into the hearts of boys and the damage that is done when we don’t nurture them.