by: Amanda Harrell, Ph.D.
For all of us, relationships provide an important context for how we learn about ourselves and the world. This is never truer than during adolescence. According to research, social experiences during adolescence have a distinctive and lasting impact which shapes how we feel about ourselves and how we relate to others. Indeed, peer relationships during adolescence are strongly related to social, emotional, and cognitive functioning both now and in the future. Due to the importance of social relationships for adolescents, when there are social skill deficits and/or problematic peer relationships, difficulties such as delinquency and antisocial behavior or anxiety and depression are common. Teens who have trouble establishing social relationships may also have problems developing intimate relationships in the future.
Why is adolescence so important? There are many biological, social, cognitive, and self-definitional/personal identity changes that occur during puberty which can make adolescence a challenging time to establish and maintain friendships. Compared to other developmental periods, adolescence is often marked by a higher tendency toward conflict with parents, mood disruptions, risky behavior, school problems, and a constantly changing self-image (wearing all black today and cowboy boots tomorrow!). For teens, relationships become more complicated and require more complex social behaviors such as initiating conversations, disclosing personal information, and providing support. Additionally, adolescents are expected to express their opinions and to remark critically about the functioning of other peers and adults (you may have noticed this!). At the same time, adolescents are very concerned about social acceptance at school and are trying hard to fit in and be ‘just like everyone else.’ This is a confusing time!
For these reasons, improving adolescents’ social skills and ability to cope with social stressors is an important ingredient for healthy development. Providing adolescents with the tools to develop secure relationships can help their self-esteem and also guard against the negative effects of stress on well-being.
Peer relationship problems are social in nature. Consequently, group interventions are often the treatment of choice for peer problems. In a group, youth are able to learn and practice social skills in vivo with their peers. Peer interactions in a group environment occur in real time, allowing group leaders to directly intervene with problem situations and reinforce positive changes as they occur. At the same time, a group setting is more structured and safe than real-life peer settings, so that fear of rejection and teasing is decreased and willingness to try new social behaviors is increased. 3-C is proud to offer Social Skills Group Intervention- Adolescent (S.S.GRIN-A, Harrell and DeRosier, 2007). S.S.GRIN-A seeks to increase children’s awareness of how their thoughts and feelings can interfere with social behavior, reinforce prosocial attitudes and behavior, combat negative assumptions about self and others, and build adaptive coping strategies for common social problems, such as teasing, bullying, and making friends.
If your teen has immature social skills relative to other youth of the same age; has few, if any, close friends and/or experiences rejection and teasing by their peers; is socially withdrawn or isolated from their peers; or has impulse control problems, such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a social skills group may be appropriate for them. 3-C Family Services can help. Contact Melissa B. Scibor, Marketing & Group Coordinator at 919-677-0101 ext. 520 or at groups@3cfs.com to find out more information.
Posted on February 09, 2010