Have you spent time with a teen lately, getting to know them? Parents and caregivers can get caught up in accomplishing the day’s tasks and neglect to take the time to listen, really listen, to teens.
With the article below, I hope to offer a different perspective on the teens in your life.
Why teens are kinder than you think & how to inspire them to be kinder still
Teenagers get a bad rap, but research suggests they go beyond expectations when it comes to showing kindness and empathy.
Teenagers all too often get a bad rap. But recent research from the University of British Columbia in Canada suggests that teenagers “surpass expectations” when it comes to doing kind things for other people.
The pandemic has led to a surge in people, including teenagers, volunteering in their community, which doesn’t surprise Prof John-Tyler Binfet, the academic behind the study.
“The research is really challenging this notion that teenagers are self-serving,” he says. “I’m not downplaying bullying in schools, but my focus is to find out what they’re doing well, as a way of getting more of that out of them.”
Binfet adds that acts of kindness can result in a positive impact on others, not just the recipients. His findings show positive effects on the atmosphere in schools, as well as improved student-to-student relationships and student behavior. Acts of kindness also produce a ripple effect.
“Doing kind acts creates this behavioral pattern in children and adolescents,” he says. “They see the world through a kind lens and seek opportunities to be kind; the ripple effect is this idea that the recipient of kindness has a higher propensity to, in turn, do more kindness…”
…The pandemic isn’t the only crisis to have inspired kindness in teenagers. A survey by the Royal Society of Chemistry, carried out in February, found that more than half of 15- to 18-year-olds consider the climate crisis to be the biggest problem facing the world today.
Doing kind acts creates this behavioral pattern in children and adolescents – they see the world through a kind lens and seek opportunities to be kind…
…Binfet notes that it is far easier for teenagers to follow their peers than to take action that might make them stand out from the crowd. “Being a teenager is a time when there is heightened self-censorship and scrutiny and self-doubt,” he says. “It takes a lot of bravery and guts to be kind.”
At Hale Strategies we understand that relationships can be full of conflict between adults and teens. Coaching adults with conflict management skills and in some cases mediation strategies for conflict resolution is the goal of Hale Strategies.
For more information about parenting teens and also teen classes
Email us at info@halestrategiesllc.com
Reach us by phone at
325-999-3445
