We talk a lot about Black boys.
We talk about education, discipline, fatherhood, violence, opportunity, achievement and what it takes to get them safely through adolescence.
But there is another developmental period that receives far less attention:
What happens after the boy turns 18—but before the man feels fully prepared for adulthood?
This Thursday on Soul Thursdays Live, I’ll sit down with Christopher C. Collins, PhD, whose research examines Black emerging adulthood, parenting, positive youth development, achievement, coping and family relationships.
His work raises a question that I believe deserves much more attention:
Instead of only studying why Black young men struggle, what can we learn by studying the relationships, experiences and developmental assets that help them thrive?
Chris’s research on Black emerging adult men found distinct trajectories in proactive coping assets—the abilities that help people anticipate challenges, plan ahead and prepare themselves to deal with what life brings. His work also found that parental support and parental coaching were associated with which developmental trajectories young men followed.
That gives us a very different conversation about Black men.
Not simply:
What’s wrong with them?
But:
What helps develop them?
We’ll talk about:
🔹 Emerging adulthood — what it is and why ages roughly 18 through the twenties deserve their own developmental conversation
🔹 Parenting after childhood — how support, coaching and guidance may need to change as a son becomes an adult
🔹 Achievement vs. well-being — why getting the degree or job doesn’t necessarily tell us whether a young man is thriving
🔹 Identity and purpose — how Black young men make sense of who they are and who they are becoming
🔹 Proactive coping — what helps a young man prepare for life’s challenges rather than continually reacting to them
🔹 Imposter syndrome across generations — including an interesting conversation Chris and I had about whether previous generations experienced some of today’s named psychological phenomena before we had today’s language for them
And we’ll explore something particularly important to me:
How do we translate research back into the community?
A researcher may call something proactive coping assets.
A parent might say:
“I need him to learn to think ahead.”
A young man might simply say:
“I’m tired of always playing catch-up.”
Sometimes the experience exists long before people have the academic language to describe it.
That’s where research, lived experience and community conversation need to meet.
BOYS TO MEN
What Research Reveals About Black Emerging Adulthood
🎙️ Featuring Christopher C. Collins, PhD
🎤 Hosted by Calvin Creates
📅 Thursday, August 27
🕗 8 PM Eastern / 7 PM Central
📍 SoulThursdays.com
If you are raising a son, mentoring a young man, working with Black men—or simply interested in understanding the transition from boyhood into adulthood—I hope you’ll join us.
And I’d especially like members of State of Black Man in the room.
Bring your experiences.
Bring your questions.
Bring what your generation called it.
Because understanding the state of Black men also requires understanding how Black men become.