Dove - Family, friends and relationships

The importance of family relationships and friendships for young people

How do friendship problems and sibling relationships affect young people’s self-esteem? How will your own mother child or father child relationship help your child's confidence? Use our articles and activities to address their concerns and bring you closer together.

As your child grows up, their relationships with friends and family will influence their sense of self-worth enormously. As their parent, you'll be a huge influence on their ideas, values and beliefs, and play a crucial role in helping them develop healthy, positive behaviours.

Our articles and activities are perfect for any family with teenagers and pre-teens, helping you open up communication around body image and self-confidence. Use them to break a cycle of poor self-esteem or a preoccupation with appearance.

A secret code for your mother daughter relationship

Average read time: 5mins read

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A secret code for your mother daughter relationship
How a codeword can improve communication with your teen daughter, helping you offer relationship advice & strengthening your mother daughter relationship.

Average read time: 5mins read

It can be hard for a teenage girl to chat to her mum – or anyone – about a sensitive issue. A mother daughter private code may help her talk when she’s feeling awkward or unhappy.

read more A secret code for your mother daughter relationship
Differing points of view in your mother-daughter relationship
How to improve communication skills to talk to your daughter effectively & strengthen your mother-daughter relationship.

Average read time: 6mins read

Convincing kids that it's worth devoting time and effort to schoolwork can be a major source of tension. Here, a mother, Jennifer, and her daughters, Emily and Samantha*, give their views on a typical mother-daughter struggle over homework – showing how understanding other people’s points of view in family disputes can reduce anger and upset on all sides.

read more Differing points of view in your mother-daughter relationship
How to have a great father daughter relationship
How to build a strong father daughter relationship and improve your communication skills to support your daughter growing up.

Average read time: 5mins read

You may never have been a girl yourself, but that needn’t be a barrier to father daughter bonding. You want your daughter to grow into a self-confident young woman – and she’s going to need her dad on her side.

read more How to have a great father daughter relationship
Teenagers and friendship: girls tell us why their friendship groups matter
Discover the importance of friendship to adolescent girls, and teach your own daughter how to be a good friend and how to deal with teenage friendship problems.

Average read time: 7mins read

What's going on between your daughter and her friends? What are they texting and messaging each other about? To get the inside story, we talked to girls around the world about what’s most important to them – their friends.

read more Teenagers and friendship: girls tell us why their friendship groups matter
The Parent Translator: a tool to tackle communication skills
How to improve your listening skills and verbal communication to talk effectively to your child & overcome teenage communication problems.

Average read time: 3mins read

Communicating with your child should be easy. But miscommunication is easier. You make a simple comment about what they’re wearing and they storm off, slamming the door. You ask what they had for lunch and they assume it’s an attack about their diet. While you’re just trying to show how much you care about them, their reactions suggest you’re speaking a different language.

read more The Parent Translator: a tool to tackle communication skills
What is active listening, and how can it help you communicate with your child?
Discover the secrets of active listening, and learn how to talk so teens will listen, to improve communication with your young adult.

Average read time: 5mins read

Communicating with teens about the problems they're facing can be difficult – it’s all too easy to say, “You’ll get over it.” But being dismissive can discourage them from expressing their feelings.

read more What is active listening, and how can it help you communicate with your child?
Words of encouragement: how you can support your child
Do you offer your child words of wisdom and encouragement? It could encourage them to open up, strengthen your parent-child bond and build their self-esteem.

Average read time: 5mins read

Life can feel lonely for teenagers. Have you considered writing a message of support to your son or daughter about being a teenager? Sharing your own experiences, words of wisdom and encouragement can help you empathise with them and improve your conversations.

read more Words of encouragement: how you can support your child

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The importance of family relationships and friendships for young people

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