Life Coaching For Kids
Life coaching involves helping people identify and accomplish personal milestones. Life coaches enable clients to set and achieve goals by implementing a variety of tools and techniques. Life coaches do not act as psychologists or business consultants, instead they draw inspiration from several disciplines, including sociological, psychological, personal development, career counseling, mentoring, and various subtypes of counseling. The earliest example of life coaching can be traced back to Benjamin Karter, a former college football coach who turned into a motivational speaker between 1970 and the early 1980s. Life coaching can benefit people of all ages, including kids facing everyday issues, including bullying, lack of self-esteem, poor self-image, parental divorce, stress, anxiety, and forming friendships.
Bullying:
Bullying, a form of unwanted behavior against an unsuspecting victim, may present itself in an abusive form of treatment that negatively affects others. The aggressor usually targets a victim who appears different from the crowd. Differences in race, religion, gender, sexuality or physical ability usually cause hostility among peer groups. Bullying may involve verbal harassment, physical assault, and coercion through peer pressure. A power struggle may persist between the aggressor and the target if the abuse goes unpunished.
- Bullying Prevention (PDF)
- School Bullying Has Long-Lasting Effects, From the Harvard Mental Health Letter
- Middle School Bullying
- Stop School Bullying Resources
- Bullying in Schools Pervasive, Disruptive and Serious, UCLA Study Finds
Self Esteem/Self Confidence:
Self esteem reflects an individual’s overall self worth. Self esteem encompasses ingrained beliefs, such as “I am likeable” and “I am worthy,” that elicits positive and negative emotions, depending on the nature of the individual’s mental state. Self-esteem embodies the totality of self evaluation or it may only affect one aspect about oneself. Self-esteem is a long-lasting personality characteristic that can sway in different directions or remain idle if left unaddressed.
- What Is The Relationship Between Low Self-Esteem and Eating Disorders ?
- Understanding Adolescent Self-Esteem
- Understanding How You Feel About Yourself
- Sorting Through Self-Esteem Issues
- The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
Self Image:
An individual’s self image embodies the imaginary picture, usually resistant to change, which not only depicts physical attributes, such as height, weight, gender, hair color, and style of dress, but also the internalized beliefs of previous judgments projected onto oneself from others. In other words, the self-image reflects your own thoughts of what others think about you. Self-image usually consists of how one sees himself or herself, how others see the individual, and the perception of how others see him or her. A warped self-image may reflect inaccurate representations of one of the three factors listed above.
- Body Image Dissatisfaction: A Growing Concern Among Men
- Body Image and Adolescents (PDF)
- Body Image
- Body Image Perceptions and Clothing Behavior Issues For Adolescent Daughters and Their Mothers (PDF)
- How Do We Develop a Positive Body Image and Self-Concept?
Coping with Parental Divorce:
Parental divorce includes the separation of a marital couple, including the husband and wife, which cancels the legal responsibilities of marriage and other bonds related to matrimony between consenting adults. Divorce cuts those ties in order to allow each party to legally depart from each other. Divorce involves several issues, including child support, re-distribution of property, child custody, and familial support. The legal process of divorce varies from country to country and state to state. It has more than material consequences as it can affect how children perceive relationships. Divorce also makes it hard for kids to focus on living their happy lives. It may affect the way the child performs in school, their friendships, and how they perceive their mother and father.
- How to Cope With Your Parents’ Divorce
- Teens and Divorce: What Hurts and What Helps?
- The Effects of Divorce on Children (PDF)
- Helping Children Understand Divorce
- Long-Term Effects of Divorce Rates Rose a Dramatic 79 Percent in Divorce on Children (PDF)
Stress
Stress involves the inability of a biological organism, including humans and other animals, to respond and cope with mental, physical, and emotional demands. These demands can come from internal or external sources. Signs of stress can manifest as cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral abnormalities, such as poor judgment, pessimism, loneliness, isolation, depression, acne, aches and pain, and even constipation. Children may withdraw from social gatherings, eat or sleep too much, procrastinate in their school work, or display nervous habits like nail biting.
- Helping Kids Deal with Stress
- Top 10 Health Concerns For Kids: Obesity, Stress, Teen Pregnancy Worsening
- Duke Doctor Offers Tips On Kids, Stress
- Tips for Parents: Children and Stress (PDF)
- Help Kids Deal with Stress
Anxiety
Anxiety manifests as a psychological or physiological state of internal discomfort. Anxiety usually affects the somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components of an individual. Anxiety means to “vex or trouble,” by inducing mental stress, such as uneasiness, fear, worry, or dread. It is considered to be a normal reaction to an internal or external stressor. Anxiety only becomes problematic if it persists over a long period of time. Children may display signs of an anxiety disorder if they have been through a traumatic experience without professional guidance to unwind and cope with it.
- Anxiety, Depression in Pregnancy May Raise Kids’ Asthma Risk
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Children and Adolescents
- Little Children — Big Anxiety
- Clowns Reduce Anxiety, But Bother Nurses and Doctors
- Stress in Elementary Children (PDF)
Friendship
Friendship, an interpersonal relationship that includes a close association, ranges in degrees of intimacy . Friendships usually spans over the course an individual’s life. In fact, building solid and healthy friendships starts at an early age and often determines one aspect of an individual’s well-being. The interaction between friends may also range in a degrees of trust. True friendships usually consists of wanting to help others, show and share caring feelings, honesty, mutual understanding, positive reinforcement, and the ability to feel free to be oneself around others.
