Teen Trust Issues

Parents

• The parent-child trust relationship is one of the most delicate bonds, according to ByParents-ForParents.com. Trust issues arise because teens begin to push household boundaries and experiment with making their own decisions. Teens seek independence and begin to question the authority of parents. However, parents must trust their children to make good decisions when they are with friends, at work and at school.

  Trust becomes fragile when parents find out about a teen's drug abuse, academic failure or promiscuity. PJ Swan, LPC, Director of Family Services at SageWalk, stated that parents can lose trust in teens, and teens can lose trust in their parents. "Breaking curfew, not finishing homework before going out with friends, and getting in trouble at school or with the law are all examples of ways to break a parent's trust," Swan said. "Likewise, if a parent promises his child she can go to a party on the weekend if she finishes her chores, and then fails to follow through, trust is broken." Parent-child trust issues can be rebuilt over time with open communication and both parties following through on their promises.

Friends

• Teens may experience trust issues in their friendships. Friends play a large role in the teen social experience. A friend's advice may bear more weight than a parent's advice. However, bonds of trust with friends become fragile from lying, betrayal and peer pressure. A friend may violate privacy by snooping into personal information. Another cause of a break in trust may be a friend sharing private information with another person. This may cause the teen to remove selected friends from his or her life, or begin to have trust issues in relationships.

  Teens can maintain healthy friendshipsby practicing mutual respect. KidsHealth.org states that mutual respect in a relationship means that each person values the other person and accepts the other person's boundaries. Once mutual respect is established, trust becomes stronger.

Internet

• Teens struggle with trust and privacy issues as Internet usage expands in the 21st century. Teenagers blog frequently, use instant messenger, Facebook, and text messages to keep up with their friends. The article "Teenagers struggle with privacy, security issues," posted by SecurityFocus.com, discussed how parents should be more involved in their teen's Internet usage. Some parents trust their teens to be wise about giving personal information online, but Internet dangers remain. Predators and pedophiles seek vulnerable teens online that do not have adult supervision.

  Morgan, a 17-year-old senior at Mountlake Terrace High School, expressed on SecurityFocus.com that she hides her computer usage from parents. "My parents wanted to check my computer, so I stopped using that computer," Morgan said. "I use the computers at school. There are things that they don't need to know." Parents can maintain trust by giving teens freedom to use the Internet but keep the lines of communication open. Parents should set boundaries for websites allowed and prohibited. Teens feel that parents should talk about the Internet issues with their kids, according to SecurityFocus.com.