Friendships and your child’s resilience

Having good friendships when growing up is associated with better resilience. Having good friends helps children and young people:

• in times of stress
• to deal with stress
• to grow in confidence and improve their ability to make good decisions
• to contribute positively to society.

Friendships can be hard to establish for some children and young people. If a child isn’t confident they may find it difficult to talk to others.

Times of change can be difficult such as changing schools. They may be leaving very close and important friendships behind and feel fearful that they may not be able to establish these kind of friendships in a different town or school

Things that can help:

. Finding children and young people with similar interests to them can make this a little easier.

. Most importantly try to be available to listen and empathise with your child.

. Think about how you can support your child’s friendships.

. Can you suggest they have friends over to your home or take them out with you to do something fun?

. Could you help them to travel to visit friends or take them to groups or activities where their friendship groups are?

It isn’t always possible to fix every friendship difficulty your child experiences, but listening and understanding them is important.

There are articles and videos available in the Moodspark area of the Kent Resilience hub. You may want to check out some of these to help your understanding of how friendships can impact positively or negatively on your child’s emotional health. These resources may also be useful to share with your child.