What Are the Benefits of Social Confidence in Children?

Better Grades

• Writing for Mental Help, a website devoted to educating people on issues affecting mental focus, social worker Angela Oswalt indicates a strong social confidence level helps children succeed in school. A child with increased social confidence has no problems raising her hand to answer questions in class. Such children are more likely to ask for assistance with concepts they do not understand. Oswalt goes on to say that children with a high self-worth, and greater confidence, strive for success more often than those who do not. These children have within them a positive drive that helps them succeed in school.

Greater Social Interaction

• The website Healthy Children, a service of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says children who have high social confidence are more likely to have greater social interactions. Children who are socially outgoing get invited to more parties and social functions. The site advises that this gives them increased interaction with children and families of different backgrounds. These children are more accepting of differences because they have had more exposure socially. A socially outgoing child is likely to ask people questions about themselves and learn about people outside of his own social circle. Healthy Children warns parents that nonsocial children can end up getting forgotten about at social gatherings, and can feel lonely and alienated.

Closer Relationships

• Socially outgoing children are more apt to have closer personal relationships. Dr. Ellie L. Young of Brigham Young University writes in an online paper for the National Association of School Psychologists, "Self-Esteem in Children: Strategies for Parents and Educators," that kids who are confident socially develop deeper relationships with their peers. These children are more capable of setting boundaries, and creating healthy relationships. These children with increased confidence are less likely to find themselves in abusive relationships, or any type of peer interaction that is toxic to their emotional well-being. These children seek out peers with the same social confidence they possess themselves.

Increased Mental Health

• According to the Centre for Confidence, a Scotland-based registered charity advising on relationships, children who exhibit higher levels of social confidence experience lower levels of mental illness. Children who have healthy, happy social lives grow into adults who are well adjusted. These children learn from an early age how to deal with social problems and develop an inner confidence in themselves, which increases overall mental health. The Centre for Confidence also stresses that with greater social confidence a child develops greater coping, communication and problem-solving skills. These skills all factor into greater overall mental health in childhood and beyond.