I read a wsj letter to the editor who attributed the decline to the over-medication of boys for behavior issues. I don’t think the theory makes a lot of sense - since those meds are prescribed with the goal of improving focus and school performance. There are lots of academic high performers that rely on Adderall and Ritalin to get through the workload.
Yet, the uptick in adhd diagnosis/medications does track with the downward trend in college attendance for boys. Made me wonder if both have their roots in the same cause.
I think the theory is that boys behave in ways boys behave (have trouble sitting still, concentrated, being quiet, etc.). This doesn’t fit into the model of how children should behave at school. So boys are diagnosed as having ADHD and medicated.
There is research that shows boys and girls display different symptoms for ADHD. Boys are more likely to have “behavior problems” than girls. That means boys are also more likely to be diagnosed and treated.
For what it’s worth, in terms of medication for different conditions, more boys are taking ADHD meds while more girls are taking meds for anxiety and depression.
I have definitely seen that dynamic. Before moving into an office setting, I worked in the lab at a large production plant for 10 years and the highest paid employees at the plant were the electricians, (even more than the young Chemical Engineers that tended to be their supervisors). I think the issue is that most people without a college degree are not tied to a high paying trade. The healthier, happier, with better marriages and living longer data is what would mean more to me than having more money, but I get that having money is probably tied to those other factors.
The high rate of pay for electricians may have to do with the fact that a good number of them are unionized; and with union membership on the decrease these days, many of those good-paying jobs are likely to decrease in number also.
All of these explanations ring true, but they’ve been around for years. And, not to put too fine a point on it, it’s been a well known dynamic within the African American community for most of my adult life. So, now it’s an issue?
I don’t know if it is politics, but I do know that it will take a long time for us (general public, educators, government) to at least acknowledge that the male students (K-through college) are indeed facing difficulties that are unique to them, naming just two, enrolling in and graduating from college at rates comparable to those of the female students.
I would argue that this was recognized as an issue long ago in the African-American community and is one of the reasons that affirmative action was put into practice.
There are many affirmative action type programs for various groups that are under-represented. One example is Girls Who Code, which seeks to increase women in the software industry. Another is the National Hispanic Recognition Program, which identifies strong PSAT scores among Hispanic people.
What is different this time is that the underperformers are a group that were, in the recent past, the outperformers. Because of that, they don’t have an advocacy group.
Or, how about, if the government had gone after the Five Families with the same zealousness with which they went after the Sackler family for getting kids hooked on cheap opioids? Maybe affirmative action would not have been necessary.
Affirmative Action has not done much to address the shortage of Black men at all, so I would disagree with that assessment. From a personal perspective, I went to a high school that was a magnet for high achieving students in my African African inner-city and there were 50 African-American young ladies and 5 African-American young men in my class that finished our diploma program.
I have visited multiple HBCUs in the last 4 years that have student body ratios that are above 75% female (like my wife’s alma mater Clark-Atlanta University) and that trend has gotten progressively worse since our college years. The gender gap that has been observed in the articles posted (basically a 60 female/40 male split) was seen among African American students at least 40 years ago. Affirmative Action also does not address the statistically significant differences in high school graduation rates, grades, and college graduation rates seen between African-American women and African-American men.
This is an excellent observation. I would like to know your interpretation, if you have one, for this trend in the achievement gap between African American females and males and why it’s growing.
I have some inkling of why young boys become disenchanted with the college entrance system in the US and that’s because it too heavily relies on past performance and behavior. In Europe where I grew up, seats at universities are determined by college entrance exams. No amount of doing your homework and being a good kid in schools helps you out. My guy friends in high school goofed off til the last year, when they were 17, 18 and more mature. Decided to study and did reasonably well. Guys that got suspended for smoking in the bathroom etc. got themselves spots to study finance. The girls studied all through high school and also did well but the ratio between the sexes in spots gained at university is roughly 50-50. Boys seem to have a delay in their executive functions maturation and this puts them at a severe disadvantage in the US, particularly if they come from families that don’t micromanage their teen lives. Just my observations!
If you don’t look at one of the highly ranked universities, this claim is not true. Almost anybody can get in a university, no matter how much they goofed earlier.
Edited to add that in US high schools there is a clear distinction of who is college bound and who isn’t from early on (my experience is limited I admit) but rarely do you see a non athlete, non academic type, break the ranks. Not so in Europe. One of my most troubled guy friends in high school (I won’t go into details) went to law school after high school (it’s not a postgrad degree in many countries). Everyone’s jaws were on the floor when we found out. You hear these stories here too but the about face happens much later in life and it’s great but there’s a lot of time to get lost in between. Again, these are my observations not proven theorems.
It is interesting that in the past centuries the boys were able to mature even earlier, with many of them starting to work at 13 and 15. And now, suddenly they need some extra time to mature.
I don’t know if it is because of lack of role models or something else, but the problem is definitely not biological.