Sports betting in the U.S. is changing fast. New prediction markets, regulatory shifts, and legal challenges are reshaping the landscape.
Join AIBM on Feb 5 at 1pm ET for a webinar on what’s next.
Register here:
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The only national research organization dedicated to issues affecting boys and men. The American Institute for Boys and Men conducts non-partisan research on issues that affect the well-being of boys and men across the United States.
Sports betting in the U.S. is changing fast. New prediction markets, regulatory shifts, and legal challenges are reshaping the landscape.
Join AIBM on Feb 5 at 1pm ET for a webinar on what’s next.
Register here:
Since 2018, sports betting has rapidly expanded across the country.
Research links legalization to financial stress for some bettors, especially young men. This policy framework by David Sasaki, Jonathan D. Cohen, and Isaac Rose-Berman outlines nine harm-reduction approaches.
Tutoring works best when it’s frequent.
High-dose tutoring shows much larger gains when sessions occur 3-5 days per week. Programs offered only once or twice weekly have far smaller effects.
Read more:
Men and women are spending more time alone, and at similar rates. Gender differences in loneliness are modest, but they show up in how connection is experienced, not time alone.
Isaac Bledsoe and Ben Smith examine what the data shows.
Legal sports betting has expanded rapidly, and the impacts are not evenly distributed.
Young men now account for a growing share of betting participation, losses, and harm.
Poet Larsen examines what legalization has changed and why it matters.
Tutoring benefits boys and girls at similar rates, but boys are more likely to be struggling readers. That makes high-dose tutoring a promising tool for narrowing early gender gaps, says Ben Smith.
AI companions are becoming mainstream for teens. About 3 in 4 have used one, and 1 in 5 now spend as much time with AI companions as with friends.
Rupert Gill explains why this matters for boys and young men and why evidence should come before scale.
New research from Ben Smith shows that high-dose tutoring really works. It’s one of the few education interventions with big, consistent gains, outperforming most others in both reading and math.
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Most students leave college for personal or financial reasons, not academic ones. Flexibility matters. Community colleges serve most stopouts and re-enrollees because they better fit adult learners’ lives.
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AIBM President @richardreeves.bsky.social explains why the past year marked a turning point for how issues affecting boys and men entered public discussion.
Are younger men worse off than their fathers?
In an NPR conversation, @richardreeves.bsky.social discusses what the data shows about men’s wages and how economic and cultural changes are affecting working-class men.
A randomized trial of the Becoming a Man program found nearly a 50% reduction in violent crime arrests by teaching young men to slow down reflexive decisions. Small interventions can save lives at scale.
Men who re-enroll in college often succeed when structured support exists. The issue is less motivation and more whether systems help students navigate their return.
One of the major risks of AI companions is substitution: They can replace real world relationships before those relationships take root.
The religious gender gap is narrowing, but mostly because women are becoming less religious, not because men are returning to church.
Read the commentary: aibm.org/commentary/a...
For ages 15-20, the biggest mortality gaps are not from chronic illness. They are from homicide, suicide, overdoses, and crashes. These often unfold in minutes or hours, shaped by pressure, access, and circumstance.
Learn more: aibm.org/policy/death...
Research shows that when teenagers have secure connections with a father figure, they are more likely to thrive. Fathers make a unique contribution that complements other caregivers.
Read the commentary by Anna Machin:
Men are 42% of college students but 51% of stopouts. They are more likely to leave college and less likely to re-enroll.
New analysis by Ben Smith and Isaac Bledsoe examines why men fall out of the pipeline and whether reenrollment programs are reaching them.
Despite recent headlines, survey data shows no clear evidence that Gen Z men are more religious than young women.
The gender gap is narrowing mainly because women are becoming less religious, not because men are returning to church, says Ryan Burge.
“Our study provides a sobering insight: society is more accepting of men falling behind, less likely to view their struggles as unfair, and less willing to provide help.”
Read the research summary by Alexander W. Cappelen, Ranveig Falch, and Bertil Tungodden:
AI companions are getting more usage, but the evidence behind their impact is still thin.
Our latest commentary looks at what we know, the risks for vulnerable users, and why stronger evaluation is needed before wider scale.
aibm.org/commentary/s...
We just launched Boys & Men Online, a new program at the American Institute for Boys and Men studying how digital technologies shape the lives of boys and men.
Led by David Sasaki, with fellows Isaac Rose-Berman and Bailey Way.
Learn more: aibm.org/boys-men-onl...
New Male Employment Data for November
The male #employment dashboard is updated! Explore the latest data on employment, unemployment, earnings, and more with interactive visuals.
A study with around 35,000 Americans shows a consistent gender gap in sympathy. When the struggling worker was male, participants were more likely to blame effort and less likely to support policies to help them.
Read the full research summary:
This Giving Tuesday, we want to thank everyone who supports AIBM. Your support strengthens our work to improve outcomes for boys and men and the communities they are part of.
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This Thanksgiving, we are grateful for the people who support and engage with our work. Thank you for being part of our mission.
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Boys and young men are facing mental health challenges, and many turn to digital tools because the support they want is not available offline.
In a new commentary, Sema K. Sgaier argues that we need to design systems to meet boys and young men where they are.
Mark Brooks writes that England’s new men’s health strategy offers a blueprint for other nations. It emphasizes a male-positive lens, evidence-based action, and systemic change in health services and society. It invites countries to ask: if England can, why can’t we?
Read more from:
Our new analysis shows why gender gaps should be measured in both directions. Revising the Global Gender Gap Report reveals areas where boys and men fall behind in OECD countries.
More from Richard V. Reeves and Allen Downey here:
Today is International Men’s Day
It is an opportunity to recognize the positive contributions men make in their families, workplaces, and communities, while also acknowledging the real challenges many men face in areas like mental health, education, and connection.
Learn more: