How To-8: "How to Help Your Teen Resist Negative Peer Pressure"

How to Help Your Teen Resist Negative Peer Pressure

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Peer pressure is a part of every teenagers life. Negative peer pressure can be one of the most difficult parts of growing up for some teens. The best ways to help your teen resist negative peer pressure is to teach them how to be confident with who they are and to help them become self-aware. Here are some pointers that you can use to help you accomplish this.

Steps

1. Spend as much quality time as you can with your teen. Try to tap into your teens interests, even if they are different from yours. Be in attendance at their games, school plays or activities. By doing this, you are giving your teen clear signs that you love and care about them.
   
2. Practice good communication skills. By showing your teenager that you are listening, you will also keep them talking to you. Your teen needs to feel that you as a parent are approachable and open-minded otherwise, they will not share what is going on in their lives.
   
3. Be respectful of your teen. Encourage your teen to think about the effects of the decisions they make, this will teach them to solve problems. The ability to solve problems is one of the good characteristics of good self-esteem.
   
4. Cultivate your teenager's self-awareness. Prompting your teenagers self-awareness will help your teen build confidence on having their own opinions. By getting your teen to reflect on something, your teen will start to think about how they feel and be more comfortable having an opinion. When you encourage your teen to talk about their feelings, you raise more self-confidence and your teen is in a better situation to ward off negative peer pressure.
   
5. Set some boundaries. Positive discipline and setting limits gives teens a sense of security. Keep your rules fair and consistent. Try to keep your rules to a minimum by focusing on the major areas of concern and continue to revisit and negotiate the consequences and rules as your teen gets older.
   
6. Inspire accountability in your teen. It is extremely important that you allow your teen to learn from their mistakes and learn to take the full responsibility for his or her actions. If your teen gets into trouble, they will never learn the natural consequences for their behaviour.
   
7. Give encouragement whenever possible. Offer your teen encouragement if you notice them struggling with something. Encouraging your teen in a positive way will definitely give them a boost and help them feel good about themselves when they are trying to achieve.
   
8. Praise your teen when appropriate. When your teen is working hard and has accomplished a certain goal, be sure to offer them praise when they deserve it but don't overpraise.
   
9. Nurture your teen's competencies. Your teen needs opportunities for success. The earlier you nurture your teens hobbies and interests, the more opportunities your teen will have for success. Once your teen succeeds, it brings a good feeling about themselves. If your teen doesn't show any interest in hobbies or activities, help your teen find their niche and nurture that interest. the more interests your teen has, the less likely your teen will get bored and get into trouble.
   
10. Inspire trust. Telling your teen you trust them is very powerful. When your teen feels trusted, they feel more independent and less need to rebel.
    
11. Use humor. Teens value a sense of humor in their parents. Appropriate humor can often resolve difficult situations.
    
12. Take time for yourself as well. When you refuel yourself, you will be in a better state of mind to be a parent and be a much better role-model. Your teen copies behaviours they see, so being good role models goes a very long way in helping your teen resist negative peer pressure.

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• How to Avoid Peer Pressure As a Teen Christian

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