The adolescent period is a complex and confusing time during which a person experiences all kinds of changes. Both our body and our mind are transformed and prepare us for the arrival of adulthood.

All these changes and transformations have a major effect on the confidence of young people, which can be either strengthened or significantly damaged. Fortunately, there are a number of guidelines or dynamics that can be carried out from home to improve young people’s confidence , as well as their self-esteem.

How is confidence during youth?

The correct development of self-confidence is of vital importance in the adolescent period, so knowing how to reinforce it from home can be of great help to them. Strengthening confidence during their youth helps to promote psychological development and self-confidence. This confidence is the basis for the person to be able to face the outside world in a healthy and beneficial way.

Self-confidence refers to the perception one has about one’s ability to carry out any act, project or to solve any kind of problem. Usually, people who have great self-confidence tend to perceive situations of change as something they can face without fear and generate strategies to solve them much more easily.

The achievement of high and solid levels of trust will lay the foundation for the correct development of other psychological constructs of vital importance to the person. Among these constructs are the development of a correct self-esteem, as well as the acquisition of an autonomy that allows him/her to face the world by him/herself in a satisfactory way.

However, this is an arduous and difficult process at a time when change is the order of the day. Therefore, stimulation and reinforcement from home can encourage the development of strong and positive self-confidence.

It is necessary to understand that this help will not always be well received by adolescents, who feel the need to go through this stage alone or in the company of their peers, but not with their parents. This fact should not generate frustration in the parents , who should understand that it is part of the stage that their children are going through and that they can help them anyway.

8 guidelines for improving youth confidence

Watching children grow up is not an easy task. The teenage years are a delicate time for both children and parents, and the relationship between them can become confusing and sometimes tense.

The adolescent’s need for autonomy, coupled with parental concerns and the desire to help, can lead to conflict in the parents’ relationship. However, parents can play an active role in developing their children’s confidence without being perceived as overprotective.

Below we offer 9 guidelines or suggestions that parents can carry out to boost their children’s confidence without affecting the relationship between them:

1. Recognize and reinforce their progress

Although they do not constantly show it, the opinion parents have of their children is important to them. Therefore, if parents spend much more time talking to their children about their mistakes and failures, they may end up thinking that they don’t know how to do anything right , that they only have defects.

In this way, talking about their successes, applauding their achievements and positively reinforcing them will promote confidence and trust in themselves and motivate them to improve.

2. Being close parents

Close doesn’t equal overprotective. Young people feel the need to know that their parents will always be there for them no matter what. Perceiving the home and the family as a refuge to go to when things are not going well is extremely important for maintaining the adolescent’s confidence, even though on many occasions their behaviour and words say otherwise.

3. Asking your opinion

Asking for the children’s opinion, as well as taking them into account, every time a decision has to be made at home makes them feel important. Knowing that their ideas are taken into account can strengthen their confidence, and will help them to create problem-solving strategies that will be extremely useful to them in the outside world.

4. Supporting your interests

Although the interests of young people are not always in line with those of their parents, the latter should support them in discovering their hobbies and curiosities.

Adolescence is characterised by a confusing time, in which young people are not always clear about what they want to do with their lives or their free time, so it is very likely that they will move from one activity to another until they find the one that really motivates them.

In either case, parents should always show understanding and reinforce the interests, as this will be what their children remember.

5. Spend time with them

This point is closely related to the previous one. Spending time with your children, doing the activities they like, will help build their confidence and motivation to continue.

6. Let them choose for themselves

The capacity to make one’s own decisions is one of the things that most favours the development of trust, even if these decisions do not come out well afterwards.

Although parents feel the need to guide their children, the latter must perceive that they have a high degree of autonomy and that, as we said before, even if their parents are mistaken, they will be by their side.

7. Let them learn from their mistakes

This point is closely related to the previous one, the ability to make decisions always carries with it the possibility of making mistakes, so even if parents suspect that something will not go well, they must allow them to be wrong.

In the same way, they also have an obligation to let the child solve their own problems. In these cases the parents can express their support and can even propose possible solutions, but never impose them.

8. Be careful with criticism

There are many ways of saying things and criticism often ends up creating a barrier between parents and children. Counseling that always emphasizes the positive aspects of the young person is much more constructive than examining and judging their behavior or tastes in a negative way.