The Missed Potential of Generation Z Men

Amy Wilson
August 22, 2025

There are many issues that Generation Z men face today. This group, born between 1997-2009, are struggling to understand their God-given role as the “keeper of the garden”¹. In the US alone, one out of every four boys is growing up without a father in their home, which is proving to lead to many of the societal issues (as seen below). If they do not have strong role models to help them see God’s purposes for their lives, how will they be able to rise above these challenges and fulfill their purposes?

What Are the Challenges of Growing Up in a Fatherless Home?²

Children who grow up in fatherless homes are more likely to experience a variety of challenges, including:

• Poverty
• Crime
• Educational problems
• Dropping out of school
• Teenage pregnancy
• Incarceration as an adult

What Are the Benefits of Having a Father in The Home?

Fathers play an important role in their children’s lives. They provide financial support, emotional support, and role models.

Children who have involved and present fathers are more likely to be:

• Successful in school
• Have healthy relationships
• Be productive members of society

Even when young men of today are blessed to have a father in the home, the social media pressures they feel to “be the perfect man” are actually having the opposite effect. They often feel overwhelmed, giving up, and spending their time mindlessly playing video games or seeking other forms of entertainment because the pressures of the world seem too much. Worldwide, the number of men with eating disorders is increasing.³ Additionally, men commit suicide at a higher rate than women, and unfortunately, the percentage of men committing suicide is also rising.⁴ Many believe this increase is due to women being more comfortable seeking help and men feeling as if they are “weak” if they seek help.

Hopefully, we can begin to see how we are not helping men rise to the challenge and fulfill their God-given identity and purpose. Men are capable because God is more than capable and wants them to fulfill the calling He has placed on their lives. If young men of today are encouraged to seek God’s design for their lives, then they can have a successful model and plan. We need to help men take responsibility, become their cheerleaders, and be the men that our world needs them to be!

1. Hansen, Brant. 2024. The (Young) Men We Need. Baker Books ↩︎
2. https://increditools.com/fatherless-homes-statistics/ ↩︎
3. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/eating-disorders-prevalence-males-vs-females ↩︎
4. https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/data.html ↩︎