Nurturing Teen Health: Fostering the Well-being of Your Teenager

There are all kinds of jobs out there, all with their own level of difficulty and deep joys attached to them. Some work has long hours and requires years of training, some work is dangerous, and some requires a high level of skill. Among these many types of work and vocations, parenting and nurturing a young person might be one of the more demanding and rewarding ones out there.

One of the many aspects of nurturing a teen is helping to foster their overall well-being and setting good habits in place that will help them throughout the rest of their lives. It’s a huge responsibility, but a joyful one. A parent or caregiver can be a huge influence in helping a teen become a compassionate, resilient, and faithful person. It’s not about having all the answers, but walking alongside them, faithfully reflecting Christ’s love, wisdom, and grace.

A Beautiful but Challenging Task

Walking with a teen through adolescence is both a challenge and a blessing. The adolescent years can be turbulent, and they can make for a trying time for both the teen and their caregiver. Whether you’re a parent, mentor, or guardian to a teen, there is a trust and a responsibility given by the Lord to train them and model what the good life in the Lord looks like (Deuteronomy 6; Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:1-4).

These passages of Scripture, along with many others, underscore that there’s a lot of significance in shaping a young person’s life. The foundations that are set early will have a huge impact on the course of their life. A parent, guardian, or mentor can, by implementing helpful practices and adopting certain postures, help to promote a teen’s mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

It is possible to walk helpfully alongside a teen as they navigate certain challenges teens typically face, and to provide meaningful support to them on the journey. It’s a beautiful and rewarding (and challenging) task.

Some Common Challenges Faced by Teens

As you try to help your teen, it’s good that you acquaint yourself with the sorts of things that teens tend to struggle with. There are parenting websites, blogs, and support groups that can help you understand what’s happening on social media, how to help your teen protect themselves online, and so on. The world is ever-evolving, and keeping up with what’s happening is a huge part of the process.

In addition to what the average teenager out there is facing, there are specific things that your own teen may be dealing with. We’ll get into this later in detail, but that’s why it matters to pay attention to what’s happening in their life.

If, for example, they’ve experienced loss, you can be alert for how that might affect them. Teens are undergoing massive changes in their bodies and socially, and it’s wise to be attentive to how they are coping.

Some of the common challenges that a teen might be experiencing include the following:

Peer pressure With adolescence often comes greater self-awareness, including where you fit in on the social pecking order. The teen years are perilous, as a social faux pas in middle or high school could follow you for years.

At a time when a teen is highly sensitive to these things but doesn’t necessarily have the emotional maturity to cope, peer pressure and the desire to fit in can be an issue, leading to risky behaviors and compromised values.

Self-esteem and identity issues Adolescence is such a key time for self-discovery, and for setting key patterns they may use throughout the rest of their life. Teens grapple with important questions like “Do I matter?” “Who am I?” and “What is my place in the world?” It can be a heady, exciting, and disorienting time of life. As a teenager’s body changes, it can raise insecurities or a sense of self-alienation and disorientation.

Sex and sexuality As peers become sexually active, and as their own bodies become alive to the realities of sex, questions about that and sexuality come to the foreground for teens. Conversations about sexuality and gender identity no doubt factor into a teen’s self-discovery and the questions they might grapple with for themselves or their friends.

Mental health concerns Many teens today are dealing with mental health concerns such as depression, stress, and anxiety. Your teen may be dealing with other health concerns, such as a learning disability or anger issues.

Academic and performance stress Despite their relatively young age, teens carry the pressure to excel academically and in their extracurricular activities. Some of these pressures are from themselves, others are from their teachers, parents, family, or community. Some teens may thrive under pressure, but for others, it can be overwhelming and undermine their success.

Family dynamics As a teen grows, their role in the family and relationships with other family members change. Change isn’t always easy, and friction or conflict can be the result. The quest for greater independence can result in run-ins with parents or caregivers, and negotiating growing responsibility can also be challenging.

Faith There’s a time in life when you piggyback on your parents’ faith and relationship with God. With time, there’s a need to take greater ownership of your relationship with the Lord, and while this starts to happen early on, the teen years can become a key time for owning one’s faith in Jesus, and whether they lean on biblical wisdom to navigate daily questions and issues.

Coming Alongside Your Teenager: Best Practices for Promoting Teen Health

The challenges that your teen faces are significant, and things can and do go awry. Nurturing another person and helping to establish them so that they are a functional individual is not an easy task. Despite the challenges, it is possible to joyfully and with steadfast love, pursue your teen’s well-being. There are steps you can implement and certain helpful postures you can adopt to help.

Above all, it’s important to commit it all to the Lord. The going may be hard, and there may be setbacks. The aim is to be faithful and trust that the Lord is at work in you and your teen’s lives. Pursue faithfulness, not success. Some of the ways to do that as you come alongside your teen, include the following:

Foster open communication As far as possible, create a safe space where your teen feels they can be heard without fear of being judged. Using skills like active listening demonstrates respect toward them, and it helps to validate their feelings.

Model faith and integrity Like the other people in our lives, teens observe and internalize the behaviors and values we demonstrate. You can, by your example, live out Christian principles in your daily life and model a life of faith and integrity that they can pattern themselves after.

Pray together A regular pattern of prayer with your teen models for them what a prayer life can be, and it also nurtures their spiritual growth while strengthening the connection between you and your teen.

Support their physical health Your teen’s physical health matters, not just for its own sake, but because physical well-being also significantly impacts mental and emotional health. By modeling it, as well as by the habits set in your home, you can promote having balanced nutrition, getting regular exercise, and getting sufficient daily rest and play.

Cultivate emotional intelligence Adolescence sometimes means fresh experiences and emotions that come with that. You can help your teen to cultivate greater emotional intelligence by identifying and expressing their emotions constructively, and by teaching them healthy coping strategies such as pausing to breathe and reflect, and biblical wisdom rooted in prayer and meditation on Scripture.

Encourage healthy relationships You can guide your teen in building friendships that are grounded in mutual respect and shared values. Talking with them about their friends, about what their friendship is rooted in, and how their friends treat them are all important conversations to have with your teen. You can help them discern what is okay and what might be abusive.

Lovingly set boundaries for them Because you love them, you’ll establish clear expectations and consistent consequences, communicating these with compassion and understanding. There needs to be healthy limits and constraints to help your teen feel secure and flourish. These may include how to relate to you and others, and how to treat property like their room or the family car, or screentime, for example.

Engage in their interests Showing genuine interest in your teen’s hobbies, dreams, and concerns fosters a strong bond. It allows them to feel seen and heard. Your consistent presence in their life provides them with a sense of security and belonging.

Affirm their worth Your teen may be battered and bruised by the world around them, which makes it such a necessary gift for you to regularly affirm your teen’s value and purpose, perhaps through reminding them that they are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).

Seek professional support when needed It’s important that you recognize when to seek help from a Christian counselor or therapist to address deeper issues or simply have professional support.

Your teen may be more willing to speak to an outside party about some issues than with you, and counseling is an important tool in your resource kit to help nurture your teen’s well-being. To learn more and to schedule an appointment, contact us today.