Boston Indicators Executive Director Luc SchusterPhoto: Madison Rogers/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A new report highlights the challenges men and boys in the Greater Boston area are facing, especially men and boys of color.
At a discussion Thursday hosted by the Boston Foundation, the focus was on the study that shows men and boys falling behind in Greater Boston in their education, employment, and in their physical and mental health.
The study further shows that men and boys of color are more apt than any other group to be left behind.
Boston Indicators and the American Institute for Boys and Men conducted the study that researchers said has taken years to complete.
Boston Indicators Executive Director Luc Schuster said the data the study uncovered is alarming. "Educational achievement gaps between boys and girls really emerged through the middle grades and widened into high school," he said.
Schuster added that more girls than boys graduate from high school and more girls go on to college than boys.
Those gaps in education extend into mental health. "There's a bunch of real reasons for concerns. (Boys have) much higher suicide death rates," Schuster said.
Lee Pelton is the Boston Foundation president.
He said in all his years of experience in higher education, "None of this new data surprised me."
The study concluded that men and boys in low-income families and in communities of color are falling behind the furthest.
Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, said part of the challenge is to understand that helping one side of the issue without hurting the other is possible. "We can do more for boys and men without doing less for girls," Reeves said.
WBZ NewsRadio's Madison Rogers (@MadisonWBZ) reports.