#70 The Truth about Teen Motivation

The Truth about Teen Motivation

Do you have a pre-teen or teenager at home?  Or do you work on programs focused on adolescents?

If so, you know this group presents unique challenges when encouraging behavior change!

Three prominent US-based psychologists shed light on this challenge in their article, Why Interventions to Influence Adolescent Behavior Often Fail but Could Succeed.

They assert that traditional interventions fail because they do not align with adolescents’ desire to feel respected and have social status.  Instead, the researchers recommend harnessing this desire through interventions such as:

• Providing exposé articles about how the food industry pushes junk food, to encourage teens to resist manipulation

• Letting teens know they have the potential to change their place in life, by sharing scientific evidence, and real stories of people who were once “losers” or “bullies”

• “thetruth” antismoking campaign, which capitalized on youth’s desire for autonomy and rebelliousness through powerful ads like this one