Supporting Young People 

Help your teenager feel more confident   

The following article from Reach Out Australia has some suggestions for helping to build your teenagers confidence:

Parents are often wondering how to improve teenage self-esteem. Improving self-esteem and confidence in your child usually starts with identifying why they might feel down about themselves in the first place. In some instances, their feelings can be directly related to their interpretation of an event such as failing an exam or a break up. By helping your child to understand that almost everyone has these kinds of experiences at some point, they can start to feel better.

Some useful strategies that you can try:

Talk about the difficulties they are facing.

Speak their language – teenagers are often more comfortable communicating via email or text message than face-to-face communication.

Encourage your child to focus on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. Spend time spotting your child’s strengths and acknowledging when they use them.

Remind your child that their worth is not based on their achievements or appearance.

Praise your child for accomplishments and also effort, but also when they might fail to reach the desired results.

Encourage them to be proud of themselves and to keep trying – explain that everyone makes mistakes and it’s ok to fail but to try again.

Discuss things you’ve done that might have been scary or tough for you to do, showing your child that you’ve also been through times when you’ve needed confidence.

Help them look and feel more confident by teaching them how to walk tall and smile. Even if they don’t feel confident, they will feel it and others will think they are confident.

Closely support your child with tasks they find difficult.

If you notice a lack of confidence is really affecting your child, suggest they speak to their school counsellor.