Helping Teens Develop Healthy Social Skills and Relationships: What the Research Shows about Navigating Adolescence

Abstract

Overview Ask anyone who has ever lived with, known, or been a teenager: adolescence is a time of dramatic change. With adolescence comes puberty, expanded cognitive abilities, a new sense of self and identity, and often new and increased expectations at school and work. Relationships with parents and peers change too. As they mature, adolescents’ social skills are called upon to form and maintain relationships. Fortunately, with these relationships, especially those of high quality, come beneficial outcomes, such as psychological health, 27,57 improved academic performance, 58,71 and success in relationships as adults. 20,27 Conversely, the absence of such quality relationships is associated with negative outcomes, such as delinquency and psychological problems. 46 To explore these critical but frequently ignored elements of adolescent development, Child Trends carried out a review of more than 360 research studies that relate to social competency in adolescence. (Social competence is defined as “the ability to achieve personal goals in social interaction while at the same time maintaining positive relationships with others over time and across situations.” 60 ) With the goal of better understanding how adolescents gain the skills needed to engage in and maintain relationships, we examined the factors that lead to high-quality social relationships and good social skills, and we looked at intervention strategies that target these areas. Significantly, a number of intervention strategies have been evaluated in experimental studies and found to be effective. Only experimentally evaluated programs are included in the review of “what works.” Also included in this review are some “best bets,” promising practices drawing on experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations, other research, and the wisdom from practitioners. (See the What Works table on pages five and six.) This is the third in a series of Research Briefs based on a comprehensive review of adolescent development research. The American Teens series covers reproductive health, physical health and safety, social skills, education, mental and emotional health, and civic engagement as they relate to adolescents.

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