Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys

Adolescence is indisputably a turbulent time for both boys and girls. But statistics show that there is an overwhelming number of troubled boys - at high risk for depression and suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and loneliness. What do boys need that they're not getting? In Raising Cain, acclaimed child psychologists Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson cut through the glib rhetoric about 'boy biology' to show that there are sure ways for parents to help their sons travel the difficult road to manhood. Using their own case studies and field research, they show that the most valuable gift we can give our sons is that of emotional literacy and they urge parents to recognise the price boys pay when we hold them to an impossible standard of manhood. Identifying the social and emotional challenges boys encounter in the family and at school, the authors give positive, practical advice on the ways parents can help boys cultivate emotional connectedness and develop effective relationships with their family, teachers and peers.