Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men

Boys Adrift provided evidence-based data on why boys today lack motivation and disengage from the world. The author of Boys Adrift, Dr. Leonard Sax is a Family Practice Physician in Washington, D.C. Through his practice, he cared for hundreds of families with girls who were smart and driven and had boys who were laid back and unmotivated. He found that this phenomenon is spread across all races and socioeconomic classes. He spent seven years researching the following three questions: (1) “Why does one man succeed, while another man from the same neighborhood- or even the same household- drifts along unconcerned?” (p.9); (2) “Where is he headed?;” and (3) “Is there anything you can do about it?” (p.10). Dr. Sax’s research found that the following five factors attribute to our society of underachieving, disengaged boys: (1) changes at school; (2) video games; (3) medications for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); (4) endocrine disruptors; and (5) the revenge of the forsaken gods. As part of my requirements for my PH 2998- Seminar in Child and Adolescent Health course at UT School of Public Health, San Antonio Regional Campus, with Dr. Steve Kelder, I will briefly summarize Dr. Sax’s main points, what I found interesting about this book, how the book relates to child and adolescent health, and advice for parents and child health advocates. Dr. Sax links how current school curriculums and structure have discouraged boys and promote apathy towards school and learning at a very young age. Kindergarten curriculum was once centered on activities like “finger painting and duck-duck-goose,” but now focuses on purely academic instruction such as reading and writing. He added that the problem with this change is that most five-year-old boys are not ready to sit down all day. He reported that the language areas in a boy’s brain at age five are similar to a three and a half year-old girl. This difference in language often results in classrooms being divided into those who are ready to learn and those who are not (the “dumb” group). Dr. Sax wrote that boys being placed in the “dumb” group can develop a lifelong disenchantment with formal education. Dr. Sax recommends delaying school until age six. Another recommendation Dr. Sax provided was incorporating competition into the school environment. He stated that boys enjoy competing against each other and it is a good way to motivate them to do better in school. Dr. Sax examined the potential relationship between video games and boys disengaging from school. He stated that the average boy spends more than 13 hours each week playing video games. Video games provide these boys an outlet to gain power and control over the games they play. Dr. Sax challenged others ideas that video games make you smarter, concluding that video games do not prepare our boys for the real world and that American boys’ IQs have been on a steady decrease over the past 30 years. Dr. Sax attributed ADHD stimulant drug use to loss of drive and apathy in adulthood. He stated that ADHD has been around for hundreds of years but over the past 20 years, ADHD prescription medications have increased dramatically. He attributed this rise in prescriptions to two main factors. The first factor is that our culture has shifted from “individual responsibility toward third-party explanations” (p. 85). He added that 30 years ago a disobedient child would be a “brat” in need of a good spanking. In today’s society, the boy may be diagnosed with a “conduct disorder” causing a shift in blame from the boy (or result of parenting) to the disorder. The second factor is the change to the elementary curriculum. If young boys aren’t ready to sit still in a chair for six hours each day, educators and parents often turn to medications. Dr. Sax wrote that ADHD medications have been shown to damage the nucleus accumbens which is the part of the brain that translate motivation into action. Dr. Sax hypothesized that endocrine disruptors, specifically bisphenol A (BPA) or phthalates, have led to an increase in ADHD, obesity, and easily broken bones among boys. He stated that if boys are introduced to these chemicals early in life it can blunt or eliminate sex differences in behavior, as well as cause problems with memory and motivation. In Dr. Sax’s final factor “the revenge of the forsaken gods,” he identified in leading to a generation of unmotivated, disengaged boys and men. Boys need strong male remodels to emulate and look-up to. Dr. Sax stressing that gender does matter because “boys and girls differ with respect to risk factors for social pathology” (p. 178). Dr. Sax’s offers excellent advice to parents, teachers and educators in the final of chapter of the book “Detox.” One of my favorite recommendations is that we should restore kindergarten as kindergarten. Also, children need to learn about things like “frogs and tadpoles” from actually playing with them, not just looking at them on a computer monitor. To address the video game problem, Dr. Sax recommended getting boys out doing the real thing; don’t play basketball on a screen play it outside. He also urged concerned parents to have their children formally assessed for ADHD by a non-biased qualified health professional and then decide if medications are necessary. Dr. Sax instructed parents to stay informed on endocrine disruptors. To address the revenge of the forsaken gods factor, Dr. Sax stated that boys need healthy male role-models, often do best in single gender schools, and bonds need to be restored between generations. As a mother of a three-year-old boy, this book was eye-opening, causing me to change my way of thinking and my approach to raising my son. Prior to reading Boys Adrift, I was concerned that my son will miss the cut-off for kindergarten by two months. Now, I am excited because he will be almost six when he starts kindergarten and it will probably be the best thing for him. Also, I had never considered single gender education for my children but Dr. Sax presented a lot of good information on the benefits of a single gender curriculum, especially for boys. One example is that boys don’t have to “wear a mask” and can be themselves without having to worry about impressing girls. The boys in these schools are provided education in a boy-friendly environment, encouraging brotherhoods, and friendly competition leading to more motivated, successful boys. Also, my husband has ADHD and this book has made me more aware of the potential dangers of starting young children/boys on ADHD medications and the importance of a formal evaluation. If my son begins to exhibit ADHD behaviors, I will be more reserved in considering medications. I am not completely sold on the endocrine disruptors factor, however, I would like to conduct further research in this area. I am actually more concerned about some of the potential negative effects on girls based on Dr. Sax’s presented literature. This book was directly related to child and adolescent health, specifically in boys for all of the reasons I have already discussed. Dr. Sax provided easy to read recommendations for teachers, parents, and child health advocates. I recommend that any parents with boys, teachers, and health care providers dealing with pediatrics and adolescents read this book and take some of Dr. Sax’s insights into consideration. I am very pleased with this book and will read it again.

Something strange is going on with boys today. My memories of boyhood revolve around the great outdoors--running through fields with hockey stick guns, climbing trees, playing any and every sport, getting sunburns, heatstroke, ticks, sprained ankles and all the other bumps and bruises guaranteed to come to an active, rambunctious boy. Though today I live in a neighborhood filled with boys, rarely do I see them out and about; rarely do I see them engaging in the activities we'd expect of them. Something has changed. So many boys are inactive and unmotivated.The changes go deeper than just the activities of young boys. "Fully one-third of men ages 22-34 are still living at home with their parents--about a 100 percent increase in the past twenty years. Boys nationwide are increasingly dropping out of school; fewer are going to college; and for the first time in American history, women are outnumbering men at undergraduate institutions three to two." This lack of activity or lack of motivation seems to continue through life. Parents, educators and doctors are concerned.Leonard Sax is a family physician and a research psychologist who has witnessed this change. He has seen it in a close and personal way through his busy medical practice. In his book Boys Adrift Dr. Sax offers his explanation as to why boys and men are failing in school and at home.He narrows in on five factors: changes in educational models; video games; medications for ADHD; endocrine disruptors; and a lack of good role models. Schools, he says, have begun to focus on academics at too early an age, leaving boys hating education from their earliest days. Programs that focus more on fun and less on academics up to age seven or eight would reap educational dividends. Important also is the distinction between learning as merely collecting facts and learning as experience. Regarding video games he believes that boys today are dedicating far too much time to this form of entertainment. As boys play these games they gain false perceptions of power and inadvertently remove themselves from reality until eventually they prefer the world of video games over the real world. ADHD is vastly over-diagnosed and huge numbers of boys are given medications they simply do not need. These medications have been proven to change the way boys develop and do far more than simply calm down hyperactive children. Endocrine disruptors, and especially artificial estrogens found in plastic bottles and other similar products, are delaying boys' development (while accelerating girls' development) and contributing to many associated problems. And finally, boys are suffering from a distinct lack of good and manly role models, both in their homes and in their communities. Each of these five areas receives a chapter-length treatment and in each case the arguments are convincing. Yet the book does not end with only this list of problems, but with the author's attempts to suggest solutions.While Dr. Sax does not claim to be a Christian, he shares many things that could easily have their roots in the Bible. For example, in discussing problems with discipline he writes, "Thirty years ago, if a boy cursed his parents and spit at his teacher, the neighbors might say that the boy was a disobedient brat who needed a good spanking. Today, the same behavior from a similar boy might well prompt a trip to the pediatrician or the child psychiatrist. And the doctor is likely to `diagnose' the boy with Conduct Disorder (DSM-IV 312.82) or Oppositional-Defiant Disorder (DSM-IV 313.81). The main criterion for both these `disorders' is disobedient and disrespectful behavior that persists despite parental efforts.' Is there really much of a difference between a neighbor saying `That boy is a disobedient brat,' and a doctor saying `That boy has oppositional-defiant disorder'? I think there is. If another parent whom you trust and respect suggests that your son is a disobedient brat who needs stricter discipline, you just might consider adopting a tougher parenting." In a similar vein, he writes about problems inherent in making behavioral issues into medical issues. "You can see how the assignment of responsibility differs in these two cases. If your son is a disobedient brat, then your son and you (his parents) have to take responsibility. You have to own up to the problem. You will probably have to make some changes. But if your son has a psychiatric diagnosis, that means he has a chemical imbalance in his brain. He-and you-are no more to blame for that imbalance than if your son were diagnosed with childhood leukemia, right? Psychiatrist Jennifer Harris recently pointed out that today, `many clinicians find it easier to tell parents their child has a brain-based disorder than to suggest parenting changes.'"While Christian readers may find it a bit difficult to read about Dr. Sax's comparisons between humans and their "primate cousins," this is one of the book's few missteps. It is well-researched and thoroughly convincing. Though some of the five concerns Sax lays out may be more important or urgent than others, and while there are many boys for whom only a few of the five will apply, I believe any parent will benefit from reading this book. The lessons he shares are applicable to children who are in public or Christian schools as much as to children who are homeschooled. Dr. Mohler calls Boys Adrift "essential reading" for parents and I am inclined to agree. If you are a parent blessed with boys or if you are a young man yourself, buy this book and read it. You won't be sorry you did.

This book has changed how I bring up my boys. Already a fairly conservative parent anyway, who homeschools and provides both a healthy diet and lots of exercise, not to mention quite strict about electronic use, I realise that even these are probably not enough to give my boys the best environment for their growth and maturity.The bottom line is this: plastic bottles for drinking water and soda contain BPA which negatively effect the production of male hormones and messes up their bodies (buy re-usable bottles without BPA), computer games enhances only one part of the male brain but makes the other part shrivel, thus damaging their centres of motivation and real-life connection (going as far as making them prefer simulated, on-line girlfriends rather than the real thing); and the use of ritalin and other behaviour-modifying drugs are so bad, even when "just trying them out", that brain chemistry and behaviours patterns will be altered forever.Yikes, people! Wake up! This isn't just scare-mongering, but careful and factual brain studies.

As a medical doctor myself , but in the UK, I am testament to the emerging trends that Dr Sax has described in his book, and then researched, to understand the phenomenon that is happening with our young boys and men today. His research which has taken place across a number of countries in the developed world has been thoroughly done and presented in a balanced way. I would definitely recommend this book to any parent or adult who wants to begin to understand why our societies are at crisis point regarding the upbringing of our children and youth. I practise in a white relatively middle class suburban area close to London and there is a definite crisis with boys having no little to no ambitions/ unrealistic ambitions which centre around making money very quickly to an almost absence of admiration for any job that would require hard work eg a career in medicine and emerging problems with alcohol, drugs and depression. We can continue in denial that any of these things are a problem for us and that it's OK to leave our boys with increasingly violent video games that undeniably affect their mental health ( amongst other things that are affecting boys) - Sax puts this in balanced perspective and begs the question - for how long societies can continue like this... The solutions he offers on how to tackle these problems are practical and that we would have to get together in our communities to support our youth. Let us act now to ( try !) and save our sons - we can do it to some extent if we work together. This book is a proof of what's going on and a wake up call. PS Regarding other reviews - you may disagree with some of his opinions but you can't deny they are evidence based. Also when he may state some anecdotal opinion rather than fact he makes that clear also.

I wish I’d of read this book when my son was younger and I was going through the tedious process of getting a “diagnosis”. After reading this book a lot of things make so much sense to me now and I will start applying the advice as soon as I can. Please read if you have a son and especially read if your sons school is suggesting he had adhd.

Yes the book arrived within the time frame and I have begun to read it. It is very provoking and insightful in relation to exploring the nature of young boys who become young men who become men....and the challenges that they face and how they can if ignored follow through into manhood. It saddens me that our boys, our young men and even our men have been drifting for so long.... I pray and hope that this book will help inspire, encourage and activate us as men and women to rise up and take the steps necessary to address this 'drifting' in our boys lifes.

Good info