mental health cure

If you are a parent of a teen, then you know that their lives can be extremely stressful. Both studies, funded by the University of North Carolina, found that teaching teens proactive coping skills improved their physical health as they struggled with the challenges of being a teen.

What Are Proactive Coping Skills?

Proactive coping skills teach teens to build up resources allowing them to meet challenging future goals. Teens are encouraged to set a goal and figure out the steps they need to complete to reach that goal. Therefore, teens learn to aspire to meet a positive goal instead of reacting when something negative happens, so they feel less stress.

Rewards of Practicing Proactive Coping Skills

When teens learn proactive coping skills, they have better mental well-being and physical health. They also experience at least four rewards they can carry into adulthood:

Sense of Meaningfulness

Teens learn that they can set and achieve a goal that is meaningful to them. Along the path, they learn to identify goals worth putting time and effort into achieving. In other words, they develop a strong sense of purpose.

Sense of Choice

Teens also learn that just because they choose to accomplish a goal in one way and their friend chooses to achieve it differently, neither method is intrinsically wrong. Furthermore, teens learn to take responsibility for their work.

Sense of Competence

Many teens feel that they are not competent at doing anything. When teens learn proactive coping skills, they learn to take pride in their work. Instead of constantly having to measure up to standards set by teachers or parents, they learn to develop their standards and work hard to do their best.

Sense of Progress

Teens practicing proactive coping skills feel a sense of progress. They take great pride in accomplishing each step along the way using resources at their disposal.

Some teens do not need much training in learning proactive coping skills while it can be much harder for others. If you love a struggling teen, contact us as we can help you guide them in the right direction.

 

 

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