All the material on this page has the protection of international copyright. Today's fast, media-saturated world is hard on teenage boys, writes Sean Scanlon . Stifled by a culture of competitiveness and aggression, where men do not show their feelings, they lead the field in poor school performance, drug use, and suicide rates. Here, young men give their views.
Teenage boys can be a complete mystery.
From being excitable, outgoing, affectionate children, they can change into sullen, introspective, monosyllabic zombies too embarrassed to step out the front door with their parents. Sometimes it seems as if they belong to a secret club with a language of its own. Perhaps, but in today's fast, media-saturated world, teenage boys do not get much good press. From statistics on performance at school to drug use and suicide rates, they lead the pack at the wrong end of the field. Since 1979, the suicide rate has grown from 12 males in 100,000 to 38 in 1998 in the 15 to 24 age group.