Trail Life USA Calls Boys Back to Real-World Adventure as Teen Screen Time Rises

New data on screen time, youth anxiety, and declining mentorship points to boys' growing need for outdoor challenge, trusted relationships, and real-world connection.

GREENVILLE, S.C., June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- American boys are growing up in a world unlike any previous generation. Time outside of school that was once often filled with roaming the neighborhood with friends, bikes, sports, fishing, chores, part-time jobs, and time alongside fathers and other men is increasingly spent indoors and online.

Trail Life USA, a nationwide Christ-centered, boy-focused outdoor adventure and character-development organization serving more than 70,000 members, says the issue is not simply that boys are using screens. The deeper concern is what screen time may be replacing: movement, outdoor challenge, real-world responsibility, peer friendship, and trusted adult mentorship.

As new data points to rising recreational screen time and related concerns for teen mental health, Trail Life USA is helping boys step away from digital distraction and into real-world adventure, skill-building, service, and relationships with trusted adult mentors.

 Families can find a local Troop or learn more at TrailLifeUSA.com.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, 50.4% of U.S. teenagers ages 12–17 reported four or more hours of daily recreational screen time from July 2021 through December 2023, excluding time spent on schoolwork. 

Among older teens ages 15–17, that number rose to 55%.

The same CDC report found a significant association between high screen use and teen mental health concerns. Teens reporting four or more hours of daily screen time were more than twice as likely to report recent symptoms of anxiety or depression compared with teens reporting less than four hours:

• 27.1% of teens with four or more hours of daily screen time reported anxiety symptoms, compared with 12.3% of teens with lower screen exposure.
• 25.9% of teens with four or more hours of daily screen time reported depression symptoms, compared with 9.5% of teens with lower screen exposure.

"Parents are not imagining this," said Mark Hancock, CEO of Trail Life USA. "When childhood moves almost entirely indoors and online, boys lose more than time outside. They lose opportunities to build confidence, resilience, responsibility, and real-world relationships."

A 2025 CDC analysis found that teenagers with higher non-school screen use were more likely to experience a range of adverse health outcomes, including:

• Infrequent physical activity
• Inadequate sleep routines
• Weight concerns
• Depression symptoms
• Anxiety symptoms
• Infrequent social and emotional support
• Insufficient peer support

For parents, the data confirms what many already sense at home: screens are not just filling time. They may be displacing many of the experiences boys need to grow. Boys used to spend time working alongside their fathers at home or with other men in summer jobs outside of school.

But now, indicators suggest boys may have fewer routine opportunities for the embodied, intergenerational experiences that once helped shape maturity. Studies show that more boys today are being raised with smartphones than fathers.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that summer labor force participation among 16 to 24-year-olds was 60.4% in July 2024, far below its 77.5% peak in July 1989. Among young men specifically, participation has fallen by 21.6 percentage points since 1989. Simply put, young men are not spending time living and working shoulder to shoulder with men the way they once did.

Family and community patterns have changed as well. According to the National Fatherhood Initiative, using U.S. Census Bureau data, 18.2 million children — about one in four — live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home.

Meanwhile, federal education data show that 89% of public elementary school teachers are women, meaning many boys may have limited regular access to male role models in their earliest school years.

"These numbers should not be used to blame parents, teachers, or technology," Hancock said. "Mothers, teachers, coaches, and youth workers are doing heroic work. But the data should cause us to ask: Where are boys regularly spending time with good men, learning practical skills, taking healthy risks, serving others, and being challenged to grow?"

Research points to the importance of those relationships. The U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention describes youth mentoring as a consistent, prosocial relationship that supports positive development and notes that mentoring has been shown to improve self-esteem, academic achievement, and peer relationships while reducing substance misuse, aggression, depressive symptoms, and delinquent behavior.

The benefits of outdoor activity are also increasingly well documented. Research reviews have linked nature exposure, outdoor learning, and physical activity with positive outcomes that include:

• Reduced stress
• Improved well-being
• Stronger engagement
• Social and collaborative skill development
• Improved attentional processing
• Support for children's attention, executive function, learning, and healthy development

For boys, Trail Life USA says these findings are especially significant because boys often build friendship and confidence through shared challenge. Online games can offer competition, achievement, and connection, but they cannot fully replace the real-world lessons boys learn by hiking a trail, starting a fire, serving a neighbor, working with tools, leading younger boys, losing well, trying again, and being known by trustworthy adult mentors.

"In Trail Life, boys regularly step away from daily distractions and digital noise," Hancock said. "They join fathers, mentors, and friends in the outdoors, where relationships form naturally and boys are able to listen, connect, and grow."

Trail Life USA provides churches and families with a Christ-centered, boy-focused program built around:

• Outdoor adventure
• Leadership development
• Practical skills
• Service projects
• Character formation
• Peer friendship
• Mentoring relationships with trusted adult men

Through local Troops, boys experience camping, hiking, skill instruction, advancement, service projects, friendship, and relationships with adult mentors committed to helping them grow.

"For parents overwhelmed by screens, anxiety, isolation, and the loss of real-world confidence, the answer is not simply taking devices away," Hancock said. "Boys need somewhere better to go. Trail Life gives families and churches a practical way to put adventure, responsibility, friendship, mentorship, and purpose back into a boy's life."

For more information about Trail Life USA or to find a Troop, visit TrailLifeUSA.com.

About Trail Life USA
Trail Life USA is a Christ-centered, boy-focused character, leadership, and outdoor adventure organization serving families and churches across the country. Through local Troops, boys are equipped to grow in character, develop practical skills, build meaningful friendships, serve their communities, and become godly men.

SOURCE Trail Life USA