Next Gen Mentors: January Recap
This session uncovered how cultural narratives of masculinity can lead to relational disconnection, emotional illiteracy, increased risk and decreased help-seeking behaviours as boys grow up—and what educators can do to make a difference. How can mental health supports in schools more effectively reach masculine-identifying students?
Downloads
Key Themes
Boys’ Mental Health
The consensus in research is that traditional male gender norms lead to increased disconnection and decreased willingness to ask for help with mental health struggles among boys and men. While there is more to unpack (i.e. the rates of suicide attempts versus the lethality of those attempts between genders, the rates of suicidality among those who don’t fit Statistics Canada’s binary of male/female, etc.), overall the data shows that boys and men die by suicide at three or four times the rate of girls and women. That is not disconnected from the pressures boys face to be strong, tough and ‘be a man.’
If this caught your interest…
Read Global Boyhood Initiative’s report, The State of America’s Boys: An Urgent Case for a More Connected Boyhood
Listen to Breaking the Boy Code podcast episode, Things to Say Before Dawn
Positive Psychology/Positive Masculinity
Researchers have suggested using strengths-based methods to validate and affirm the healthy and positive elements of masculinity—building in boys what is right, rather than fixing what is wrong. The thing is, this has to happen alongside an expansion of how we think about manhood, otherwise we risk perpetuating the stereotypes.
If this caught your interest…
Skim the chapter written by Mark Kiselica and Matt Englar-Carlson in the American Psychological Association Handbook of Men and Masculinities, Accentuating Positive Masculinity
Read past Next Gen Men blog post, Unpacking Positive Masculinity
Peer Relationships
One of the obvious responses to a culture in which mental health, emotional expression and vulnerability are stigmatized is…to challenge that culture itself. This is valuable; however, it needs to be done alongside helping boys identify and maintain close, supportive friendships. Adolescent boys’ peer relationships often fall within a gap of mental health promotion, and they shouldn’t.
If this caught your interest:
Read Learnings & Unlearnings blog post, The Tragic Tale of Boys’ Closeness, based on an Oscar-nominated film that follows boys’ friendships
Watch the music video for The New Great Depression by The Moth & The Flame