The Future Starts Younger: Why Boys’ Wellbeing Is the Next Frontier in Mental Health

Oct 17

When Lisa Britton asked in the Los Angeles Times, “Have you considered helping boys?”, she gave voice to something many families and clinicians already sense.

While progress for women and girls has transformed our culture for the better, boys and men are now facing a quieter crisis of their own.

Through our work with boys and young men, we see how early that story begins. Long before adulthood, boys start receiving messages about what it means to be strong, successful, or in control.

Our article, “The Future Is Everyone,” looked at how men’s mental health shapes the wellbeing of families and communities. This next chapter steps back to the start of that journey, where boys begin learning how to be in the world.

We Cannot Talk About Men’s Mental Health Without Talking About Boys

By the time a young man reaches adulthood, patterns of self-concept and coping are already well established.

If boys are rewarded for endurance but not for expression, for achievement but not reflection, it is no surprise when those patterns persist.

Nationally, boys are falling behind in school engagement and social connection. They are more likely to be suspended, less likely to graduate, and far less likely to seek help when they are struggling. Rates of anxiety, isolation, and school avoidance continue to rise, yet those signals are often misunderstood or minimized as defiance, laziness, or distraction.

Britton’s challenge is clear. If we truly care about equity, we cannot wait until adulthood to intervene.

Empathy that begins at the crisis point is empathy that starts too late.

The Next Frontier: Early, Emotionally Intelligent Intervention

The next frontier in mental health is not new technology. It is teaching boys emotional literacy, resilience, and relational awareness before they hit the breaking point.

In our clinical experience, boys engage best when therapy meets them where they are, both literally and emotionally. That might mean:

Talking on the basketball court instead of across a desk.
Practicing focus and breathing between rounds of boxing.
Bringing family systems into the conversation so progress does not happen in isolation.

When care starts early and feels authentic, it reshapes the trajectory.

Raising the Future: Building Systems That Work for Boys

As Britton notes, the disparities we see in education, health, and wellbeing are not accidents. They are the result of systems that were never designed with boys’ emotional development in mind.

That is why prevention has to become the new innovation.

We need schools that value active learning as much as compliance, families that practice open dialogue as much as discipline, and care models that see boys as whole people, not problems to solve.

At Aim Psych Youth, this work happens through collaboration. Our team model surrounds boys and families with the right fit of specialists, including therapists, coaches, psychiatrists, and educators, so growth becomes collective rather than solitary.