These external influences include family relationships, peers, social media, and school pressures. To cope with these external pressures and maintain mental well-being, teenagers must be equipped with the necessary tools.

1. Family Relationships

How parents interact with their teens can have a lasting impact on their self-esteem, confidence, and mental well-being. A strong family bond built on trust, respect, and communication can give teenagers a safe space to express themselves freely without fear of judgment or criticism. You can try teen therapy to ensure that any problems are addressed. In addition to providing emotional support, teens need guidance in navigating the real world and making decisions.

When parents don’t take the time to connect with their teens or if there is an underlying tension between them, it can create feelings of insecurity or inadequacy, leading to mental health issues such as depression or anxiety. Therefore parents need to be actively involved in their teenager’s life by listening openly to what they have to say and being encouraging rather than critical of their emotions and experiences so that they feel supported no matter their challenges.

2. Peers

The way teens interact with their peers can have a significant impact on their mental health. While positive relationships with friends can foster social development and support, peer pressure or toxicity may lead to isolation, resentment, or low self-esteem.

Teens should be encouraged to form meaningful friendships with those who understand them and respect their decisions rather than those who try to manipulate or control them. They should also be taught to practice self-care by monitoring their social media usage and avoiding any negative interactions that may arise from it.

3. Social Media

Social media has become one of the most influential forces in young people’s lives today, and it can significantly affect their mental health. While connecting with others online can provide teens with a sense of community, it can also be extremely damaging if used in unhealthy ways. Excessive use of social media can lead to feelings of isolation or comparison with unrealistic standards often presented on these platforms. Teens need to be aware of the dangers posed by cyberbullying and other online threats and the potential effect their digital behavior might have on their mental well-being.

4. School Pressures

The pressure to perform academically and socially in school can be a huge source of stress for teens. Studies show that academic pressures such as taking challenging courses, test anxiety, or needing to compare themselves to their peers can lead to feelings of inadequacy and depression.

Teens need to learn how to manage their stress healthily, such as developing coping mechanisms and setting realistic goals. In addition, providing teens with a regular opportunity to talk about their feelings and experiences can also help them better manage the pressures of school life.

External influences play an essential role in teenagers’ mental well-being. Parents, teachers, and other adults must provide teens with the necessary tools to cope with these influences and maintain their mental health. With the right resources, teens can learn to manage their emotions and respond positively to external pressures.

Also read:

5 Benefits of Therapeutic Boarding Schools

What is the Goal of Therapeutic Boarding Schools?

The post How External Influences Impact Teenagers’ Mental Well-Being first appeared on Help Your Teens.

It can be shocking seeing thirteen year-old girls looking as if they are sixteen year-old and sixteen girls pretending they are nearing twenty!

From generations earlier, it’s normal for tweens and teens to want to feel older than they are – or try to fit in with a cooler-clique, but at what cost?

Most every parent has experienced their tween or teen girl or even boy (with those pants hanging off their butts) that make us cringe!

In a culture where midriff-baring pop icons surround us, it can be increasingly difficult to convince teenage girls that dressing modestly is actually important. As girls become teenagers and begin to assert their independence by testing boundaries, one of the more common ways that such behavior presents itself is through more risqué wardrobe choices.

As a parent or educator, figuring out how to encourage more modest styles of dress without alienating a willful teen and causing her to become even more attached to her new, more suggestive style can be a serious challenge.

Boost Self-Esteem

For teenage girls who are struggling to stand out from their peers and are battling secret insecurities, equating their blossoming sexuality with increased popularity and attention from the opposite sex can be very common. When they understand that their worth is based upon far more important qualities than their burgeoning sex appeal, they may be more tempted to eschew revealing clothes in favor of more modest choices that take the attention off of their bodies.

Talking about the importance of strong self-esteem and helping to boost your teen’s confidence in herself can be one of the more effective methods of curbing a new predilection for wearing inappropriate clothing.

Establish Boundaries at a Young Age

As a child moves into the tween years – before her body begins to develop, but as she’s beginning to establish her own tastes and sense of style – it’s wise to start talking about immodest clothing and begin establishing boundaries regarding what you do and do not find appropriate. Even though most tween girls have not yet developed more womanly physical attributes, banning shorts that are inappropriately short or tops that are overly tight can help her to understand early on that such things won’t be acceptable as she gets older. An open dialogue about why immodest clothing can attract negative attention should start early, that way she’s well aware of your expectations and has an understanding of why revealing clothing is problematic.

Don’t Buy Revealing or Immodest Clothing

While a teen that’s determined to wear revealing clothes will find a way to get her hands on them, you can openly discourage a tendency to dress inappropriately by refusing to buy clothing that you find too mature or overly sexualized. When you’re shopping with your teen, it’s important to stand firm and not allow yourself to be swayed by pleas for clothing you don’t approve of or give in to teenage temper tantrums.

When your child understands that you will not purchase such items, she’ll at least understand that you don’t approve of them. In order to make this method of encouraging more modest clothes effective, it’s important to follow up with calm and sincere conversations about why you won’t purchase revealing clothes and that you hope she’ll understand that you have only her best interests at heart.

Discuss the Image Your Teen Wishes to Portray

Seeing the attention lavished upon scantily-clad celebrities and noticing the attention that she gets when she wears revealing clothing can send a teen the message that less clothing sets her apart from the crowd and helps her to stand out. What she doesn’t typically understand is that the kind of attention she’s attracting is probably not the kind she’s seeking.

Talking about the kind of image that she wishes to portray and the fact that skimpy clothing can cause people to see only her physical attributes and not her intelligence or character may help to dissuade your teen from dressing in such a manner, especially if she doesn’t understand that attention from the opposite sex based upon her revealing clothing is almost always conditional.

Explaining that boys who praise her lack of modesty and seek out her company when she’s dressed in a revealing fashion are almost invariably not the kind who are looking for actual relationships or who have much regard for her feelings can appeal to the romanticism that teenage girls can harbor. Let her know that sexual attention isn’t love, and that dressing more modestly can attract the attention of boys who are interested in her mind and personality, rather than her body.

Trying to convince your teenager to wear less revealing clothing and dress more modestly can be an uphill battle, especially if her friends and others in her immediate social circle are prone to dressing inappropriately. It may take quite some time before you see actual results from your efforts, but it’s important to stick to your proverbial guns in the interest of consistency and establishing parental authority.

###

If you are struggling with your teenager and have exhausted your local resources, learn more about how residential treatment can help your teen make better choices. Contact us today for  a free consultation.

The post Trendy Teens: Discussing the Fashion first appeared on Help Your Teens.