Boys lag behind girls in reading scores. Boys express less confidence than girls in achieving higher education. Boys are more likely to endure disciplinary problems, be suspended or drop out of school. While academic performance and self-esteem are declining, the rates of suicide and depression are on the rise among boys. As the recent tragedies in Littleton, CO, Jonesboro, AK, Atlanta, GA and Boston, MA demonstrate, thousands of boys are engaged in silent crisis in towns and homes across the United States.
Boys are more likely to succeed in suicide than girls.
Since the 1950s, suicides among young white males have nearly tripled and remain, even now, twice as high as the overall suicide rate of the United States. That special walk you observe only in boys. Those actions, words, expressions and postures that boys use to try to protect themselves from violating society s expectations of boys and men. This outdated code dictates that truly masculine boys and men express themselves through extremely narrow fields of 'manly' emotions, namely anger and aggression, toughness and machismo. Research reveals that starting at very early ages, many boys feel forced to conceal their true feelings.