Young boys are reportedly feeling deprived of physical touch and affection, also known as “touch starvation” — which can have a major impact on their emotional and social well-being.
“The bottom line: touch keeps you alive. It’s crucial,” Michael Thompson, PhD, a clinical psychologist specializing in children and families, told Parents.com in an interview.
Experts like Thompson stressed the importance of positive touch for healthy development — especially for young men who are often exposed to toxic masculinity at a young age.
“Boys are already being socialized, whether parents know it or not. It’s happening everywhere around them from the moment boys are exposed to the world, but particularly when they are exposed to media,” Matt Englar-Carlson, a men’s mental health researcher and Chair of the Department of Counseling at California State University Fullerton, also told the outlet in the same interview.
Oftentimes, when young boys grow up without a healthy example of physical touch, it can come out in not-so-appropriate ways, like roughhousing with their peers.
Adults will often view this sort of playful teasing amongst young men as “boys will be boys” — but it actually indicates that something more serious might be going on.
Iritability, anxiousness, social withdrawal or difficulty calming down are other tell-tale signs that a young male is suffering from touch starvation.
A 2016 study pointed out that young boys who were exposed to healthy physical touch when growing up reportedly had lower levels of depression and healthier romantic relationships when they were older.
Yet, according to a recent Gallup poll, American Gen Z and millennial men are reportedly the loneliest group — which proves that the majority of young boys are not being shown examples of positive physical touch when growing up.
To combat this growing epidemic, Thompson and Englar-Carlson suggested to the outlet some helpful ways parents can reintroduce healthy physical touch into their sons’ lives.
One way is to use touch in a calming manner when a young boy is upset over something.
They also suggested that parents talk to their son about the type of touch they prefer — whether it be a hug, putting their arm around them, or giving them a soothing rub on the back.
The experts also said to discuss boundaries around physical touch with sons to learn what they feel comfortable with.
And if a parent senses that their son is not ready for a school drop-off hug just yet, they suggested saying something along the lines of, “I need to hug you. Is there a place I can do it where you’d feel comfortable?”
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