How to Help Your Teenager Make Friends: Practical Tips

When you’re a teenager, friendships play an integral role in your development. Friendships can influence your self-esteem, social skills, interests, and emotional resilience. Unfortunately, making friends isn’t always easy- especially during those formidable awkward years!

In this day and age with social media and other time consuming electronics, social interactions can be even trickier. If your teen is struggling to connect with their peers, there are things you can do to help support them.

Keep reading to learn how to assist your teenager in making meaningful friendships.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. Open communication
2. Understanding their social style
3. Teaching social skills
4. Creating opportunities
5. Leading by example

Open Communication

Fostering open communication with your teen is one of the best things you can do for the both of you. Make sure they know that they can always come to you without fear of shame or punishment. Share things about your life and your friends, this can make it easier for them to open up to you as well.

You know your kid best- try to find a balance between being curious/caring compared to meddling. Ask them about themselves, their hobbies, what they like and don’t like. Ask them about the kids in their class or the neighborhood, and who they would be interested in getting together with. If they are already used to being open with you about the smaller things, it could help them open up about the bigger, more uncomfortable things.

Understanding Your Teenager’s Social Style

Some kids are naturally outgoing, and others are quieter and take longer to warm up. While you can help your teen step out of their comfort zone, you don’t want to completely push them to be someone they’re not. It’s important to recognize your teens social style and help support them accordingly.

Once you have fostered open communication, you can ask them more about their comfort levels and what they want. You can ask them what type of friends they are hoping to make, what they would want to do, and how they would feel comfortable approaching the friend. Do they feel more comfortable one-on-one with a friend, or would a small group be better? You can help them come up with a plan to invite some kids over for games or go to a movie, etc.

Teach Social Skills

Social skills can be learned and improved with practice. You can help your teenager by teaching and modeling good communication skills!

This can include:

• Active listening- encourage your teen to show interest in others and listen actively to what they are saying.
• Starting conversation- teach them simple ways to initiate conversations with potential friends. This can include something like asking questions and giving compliments.
• Reading social cues- help them understand things like body language and tone of voice.

You can also help your teen decide on the types of people they want to be friends with. What qualities to they admire in a friendship? Someone who is kind, funny, reliable, a good example, etc.

Create Opportunities

Making friends is hard! And your teenager may not always be in the best circumstances to make friends with people like them. You can help facilitate opportunities for social interactions.

Encourage extracurricular activities- sports, school clubs, drama class, dance. These are all great ways for your teen to make some friends! These structured environments will allow them to meet those with similar interests. Church youth groups, community events, and service projects are some other ideas that could expose your teenager to new people. Consider also offering to host social gathers at your home- your teen will probably feel a sense of stability and comfort if its at their own home.

Don’t forget to encourage patience and persistence. It wont happen over night, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. Friendships can take time, and they need to be nurtured and cultivated.

Lead By Example

Your teenager picks up on more than you’d think. Your social behavior matters! Demonstrate healthy friendships, be a good listener, be a thoughtful friend, and show kindness to others. Make an effort to maintain your friendships and they will be more likely to develop similar traits and habits.

Final Thoughts on How to Help Your Teenager Make Friends

Helping your teenager make friends is a journey that requires patience, understanding, and encouragement. By providing them with the right opportunities, social skills, and emotional support, you can guide them toward forming meaningful and lasting friendships. Above all, remind them that true friendships are built on mutual respect, kindness, and shared interests—qualities they already possess!

If you feel like something deeper is preventing your teen from making friends, a therapist specializing in teenage counseling might be able to help.