Dear parents and friends, it is a pleasure to have you listening to our consulting psychologist, Ms. Lee Li Li's public sharing on the topic "The New Year Wishes of Teens and Parents", on 10th December 2019, Tuesday, 10:00am, on Ai FM 89.3/106.7 Ai Ceria session.

Goals Setting with Teens

Other than focus on setting academic goals for the coming year, parents shall look into helping our teenagers to achieve the transition from a state of complete dependence to personal autonomy, hence, autonomy support parenting is vital to foster self-determined behaviors.

What is autonomy support parenting?

With a mutual support relationship, parents mainly offer important information (e.g. personal experience, advice, opinion, etc.) and guide the teenager to make appropriate decisions in daily life, academic or social aspects. Meanwhile, parents will practice mutual respect, and less likely to make their child to feel stressed or restricted through commands. For instance, teenagers hope for encouragement and support from the parents when they are trying to breakthrough, instead of worries and discouraging words. Despite of the fact of giving up, teenagers will be more receptive towards their own decision.

Based on self-determination theory, there are 3 basic psychological needs:
1. Autonomy: The need to make decisions and control the course of their lives
2. Competence: The need to gain mastery of tasks and learn different skills
3. Relatedness: The need to experience a sense of belonging

These psychological needs are interwoven with personal growth. If a child is high in self-determination, he will be able to face the challenges, believe that he can find the solutions and take action to fix it. Parents may also discuss with their children on faced problems by making adjustments on the study environment, personality, attitude, etc. based on their basic psychological needs. If the child is lacking the capabilities to support their decisions, parents may offer learning opportunities for them to improve their skills. Meanwhile, the child will be able to learn how to gain acceptance and respect, as well as do the same to others.

Please click this link to find out more, and to watch or listen to the full sharing

Note: The above content is adopted from Ai FM 89.3/106.7 (Ai Ceria) program - “The New Year Wishes of Teens and Parents” on 10th December 2019. For more information, please kindly contact our office. It is our pleasure to request our consulting psychologist to assist you. Thank you.