Mental health is a vital part of every teen's overall well-being. Sixteen-year-olds are navigating complex emotional landscapes as they develop into young adults, and these experiences can impact their mental health. Just like physical health, mental health requires attention, and it's vital to equip teens with skills to support their resilience and emotional well-being.

Teens between the ages of 15 and 19 are going through many transitions, including increased academic demands, evolving friendships, and forming their identities. These changes can be overwhelming, and teens can find the changes difficult without proper tools to manage emotions. Your guidance as a parent or someone in a parenting role is crucial in helping them learn how to maintain mental health and build emotional resilience.

In some cases, intense stressors such as family mental health issues or trauma can impact a teen’s mental health. If you or your teen has experienced such difficulties, seeking external support from professionals is important. However, the steps outlined here can help your teen develop everyday skills to navigate mental health challenges and build resilience.

Whether it's your teen feeling anxious about an upcoming test, overwhelmed by social dynamics, or dealing with low self-esteem, attending to mental health is essential. In the short term, teaching mental health awareness skills can foster:

● Increased confidence in managing emotions and maintaining balance

● Better connections with family, friends, and peers by improving communication and understanding

● Greater self-awareness and emotional regulation

In the longer term, your teen can develop:

● Emotional awareness and the ability to understand and articulate their feelings

● Resilience in facing life's challenges and stressors

● Healthy coping mechanisms to manage stress, anxiety, and other mental health concerns

This five-step process[1] will guide you and your teen through strategies to support mental health, increase emotional resilience, and build lifelong skills.

Tip: Intentional communication[2] and actively growing a healthy parenting relationship[3] will support these steps.

Engage your teen in a conversation about their mental health. By asking open-ended questions, you give them the opportunity to reflect on their emotions and experiences. This process promotes self-awareness and encourages them to identify areas they want to work on.

Questions to Ask:

● “What emotions have been the hardest for you to manage recently?”

● “Can you describe times when you feel[4] anxious or overwhelmed?”

● “What do you do when you’re feeling down or frustrated?”

● “What do you do when your emotions feel out of control?”

Active Listening: Practice active listening by paraphrasing their feelings to show understanding, e.g., “It sounds like you’re feeling...

Trust is an important foundation for healthy relationships. As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your sixteen-year-old’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-teen relationship and understand how to promote trust in your teen.

Teens and emerging young adults ages 15-19 are in the process of exerting their independence and spending more time with peers. They are working on understanding and predicting others’ thoughts and feelings. As they do, they also may seek to hide the truth, particularly if they fear harsh judgment from respected adults or peers. They are also testing boundaries and taking more risks socially and academically. Often, that risk-taking can lead to mistakes, misbehaviors, or even failure. Teens may be tempted to cover up their failures or want to take risks their parents may not permit.

Though younger children cannot distinguish between the subtleties of deception, teens and emerging adults can understand the differences between honest mistakes, guesses, and exaggerations, as well as sarcasm and irony. As part of their cognitive and moral development, a full understanding of lying and its consequences continues to develop throughout childhood and adolescence.

The key to many parenting challenges, like raising teens who learn the value of truth-telling, is finding ways to communicate to meet your and your teen’s needs. The steps below will prepare you to help your teen learn more about your family values, how they relate to lying, and how you can grow and deepen your trusting relationship.

Whether it’s your fifteen-year-old lying about where they went after school or your seventeen-year-old lying about failing a test, your teen’s ability to tell the truth can become a regular challenge if you don’t create plans and strategies.

Today, in the short term, honesty can create

● greater opportunities for connection and enjoyment

● trust in each other

● a sense of well-being for a parent and teens

● added daily peace of mind

Tomorrow, in the long term, your teen

● builds skills in self-awareness

● builds skills in social awareness, perspective-taking, empathy, and compassion

● builds skills in self-control

● develops moral and consequential thinking and decision-making

This five-step process helps you teach your teen about honesty. It also builds essential skills in your teen. The same process can also be used to address other parenting issues (learn more about the process[1] ).

Tip: These steps are best when you and your teen are not tired or in a rush.

Tip: Intentional communication[2] and a healthy parenting relationship[3] support these steps.

You can get your teen thinking about honesty by asking them open-ended questions. You’ll help prompt your teen’s thinking. You’ll also better understand their thoughts, feelings, and challenges related to honesty so that you can address them. In gaining input, your teen

● has the opportunity to become more aware of how they are thinking and feeling related to lies and truth

● can begin to formulate what it means to be in a...

Sixteen-year-olds require the ability to follow directions to succeed at home and school. Whether they are completing homework, following safety instructions, or showing their knowledge on tests, they will need to be able to follow directions. Though telling your teen to do something may seem simple enough, listening and engaging in several steps given in an instruction necessitates several brain functions in addition to motivational factors.

Teens ages fifteen to nineteen are working on understanding what it means to act responsibly. They are working to understand the rules and apply them in various settings. They are working on their independence. They increasingly care for their bodies (eating right, getting exercise). They are learning about relationships (managing their feelings and impulses, empathizing and working through conflict, being dependable, and keeping promises). They meet school requirements (manage homework and extracurriculars) and contribute to the household in which they live (do chores and cooperate with rules and expectations).

They are also working to define their identity. As they develop, as part of their growing self-awareness and self-management, they will test boundaries, forget things, and break rules. When they do, they require guidance on approaching a hurt relationship, revisiting missed obligations, and repairing harm. This is a normal part of their development and necessary for learning how to take responsibility.

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you can be deliberate in offering instructions to help your teen successfully follow directions. Understanding multiple-step directions engages their short-term and complex working memory, an executive function that requires practice and development over time. In the case of short-term memory, you might ask your teen, “Would you complete your homework before dinner, get your shower done after dinner, and be in bed by nine, please?” They need to remember those three items as they move on to their homework. In an academic setting, as another example, a teacher may say, “At the end of our class, I’ll give you time to take out your pencils, read the directions at the top of the page, and fill in only questions 3. and 5.” Students have to retain that information as the teacher moves on to other topics and also plan for what they will need to do when they come to the time when they have to implement the teacher’s instructions. This expectation utilizes complex working memory and can be challenging for students.^1^

Following directions can involve all five core social and emotional competencies[1] . Teens may need to be aware of their strengths and limitations (self-awareness) to complete the tasks given. They must use their self-management skills to wait and focus on what’s been instructed when necessary. They may require social awareness or empathy as they work to understand the needs, feelings, and thoughts of the one giving them directions. They will use their relationship skills by listening actively to what’s required. They will also use their responsible decision-making skills to decide whether and how to follow through with a request or instruction.

Some parents and those in a parenting role may feel frustrated and even angry when their teens do not follow their directions as they requested. A parent may perceive that a teen who is not following their directions is defiant or disrespectful, but in reality, there may be another reason for the behavior. There are several factors to consider when a teen does not follow a direction. When faced with this situation, a parent may ask themselves:

- Does your teen have the total capacity and skills to follow the directions?

- Does your teen have any barriers...