How parents can help their children cultivate healthy friendships

As we head into a new school year, parents have a lot to consider. One thing that research shows we should put at the top of our lists: Helping our children make and maintain friends.

“Making friendships is one of the most important developmental tasks for tweens and teens,” said Berna Güroğlu, a neuroscience professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, in a 2022 research paper on the power of friendship. To think this is a learned skill may seem absurd, but our children are coming of age in a time where social interactions are often online — and after spending months locked away from peers during the height of the pandemic.