The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It

And if your son is unemployed? Three out of four women say they would not date an unemployed man. In contrast, for two-thirds of men, dating an unemployed woman is a nonissue.

In these ways, your son's economic health can dictate his ability to be loved, which makes his economic health inseparable from his mental health, and therefore his physical health. And few things affect his economic health more than his education.

Children living with their dad felt positively about their mom; children living with their mom were more likely to think negatively of their dad.

The trading of wit-covered put-downs is boys and men training each other to handle criticism, unconsciously knowing that the ability to handle criticism is a prerequisite to success.

In a study of more than twelve thousand teenagers after divorce, children living with single dads fared better than children living with single moms.

The discipline of postponing gratification is the single most important discipline your son needs.

Every day, 150 workers die from hazardous working conditions. And 92 percent are male.

In one generation, young men have gone from 61 percent of college degree recipients to a projected 39 percent; young women, from 39 percent to a projected 61 percent.

But here's the first clue: the male-female pay gap is not a gap between men and women; it is a gap between moms and dads. Or more precisely, between men and women's work-life decisions when they become moms and dads.

If children live in separate homes, proximity to the other parent has been found to be the single most important factor determining a child's likelihood of success.

Three-quarters of dads who were in South Carolina jails for being behind in child support payments suffer from extreme poverty. And one-eighth of all South Carolina inmates are in jail for being behind in child support payments. No dad is imprisoned for not spending enough time with his children. And it is rare for a mom to go to jail for preventing dad from spending enough time with his children.

Since dad is most at risk of being both bad-mouthed and less involved, lets look at three reasons bad-mouthing sin is in conflict with your child's best interest:1. Your children grow up feeling, "I hate who I am."2. Your children fear that "loving dad is betraying mom."3. Bad-mouthing undermines dad's motivation to invest money and time in the bank of love and to become responible in response to the hope for love.

even when race, education, income, and other socioeconomic factors are equal, living without dad doubled a child’s chance of dropping out of high school.5

Your son is more likely to seek a job in a sector that is being increasingly outsourced overseas- as with computer technology and manufacturing, as well as online jobs. Your daughter is more likely to hold jobs in stable sectors that are more recession proof, like health and education, both of which are 75 percent women.

In brief, we spend billions to get from dads the money few of them have, and virtually nothing to allow dads to give the time they do have-the time their children need.

The boy crisis' primary cause is dad-deprived boys. Dad deprivation stems primarily from a lack of father involvement, and secondarily from devaluing what a father contributes when he is involved.

If your son is heterosexual, then he discovers the harder it is to find a job, the harder it is to find a woman.

Peter's dad, Joe, had prepared his son to know that a certain amount of hazing is the price of admission for acceptance, not rejection. The trading of wit-covered put-downs is boys and men training each other to handle criticism, unconsciously knowing that the ability to handle criticism is a prerequisite for success.

brief, I saw how “dad deprivation” and the purpose void had a compounding effect.

Fatherhood was about your dad trading in the old glint in his eye-what he loved to do- for the new glint in his eye: his love for you.

The problem? There has been no parallel effort to help our sons become multipurpose men. The female-only scholarships and affirmative action for our daughters to enter the STEM professions is not matched by the male-only scholarships and affirmative action for our sons to enter the "caring professions" -- elementary school teachers, social workers, nurses, dental hygienists, marriage and family therapists, or becoming a full-time dad.

Prisons are the United States' men's centers (9 percent male). A staggering 85 percent of youths in prison grew up in fatherless homes. More precisely, prisons are centers for dad-deprived males- boys who never became men.

Although girls express their feelings more easily, what they receive most often from girlfriends and mom is reassurance. Unlike boys, who are frequently challenged by their friends, girls are less likely to have anyone besides their dad to go to with the anticipation of being challenged by someone who has her best interest at heart.

That is, findings published in Pediatrics in 2017 concluded that “at 9 years of age, children with father loss have significantly shorter telomeres.”1 Telomeres in our cells are what keep our genes from being deleted as our cells divide. As the National Academy of Sciences reports, “Telomere length in early life predicts lifespan.”2

In these ways, your son's economic health can dictate his ability to be loved, which makes his economic health inseparable from his mental health, and therefore his physical health.

Living in homes without dads is more correlated with suicide among teenagers than any other factor.16

Do men read “self-help” books? Yes. They are called “business books”—self-help books for dads to do better in their business so their families can do better in life.

Helping your son develop his sense of purpose requires beginning at a very different place than his dad-or granddad. His dad or granddad was told his sense of purpose. Your job is to help your son find his sense of purpose.

it is almost exclusively our sons who are willing to risk death so their family will have a better life.

Aside from their physical health, this damages both our sons' psychological security, and our nation's global security: a third of young men are not fit for military service owing to obesity and other physical and mental problems.