Culture, heritage and connecting with your teen

By ReachOut Content Team
Published 07 September 2023

Hear from Clinical Psychologist, Dr Shilpa Madiwale on ways parents can help their teen build cultural pride.

Read the transcript.

Some tips for helping your teen connect with their culture and heritage

  • Relationships can be key to helping young people connect with their cultural background. For example, parents and their teens can get involved together with their local cultural community. You might be encouraged to speak your mother tongue with the community, and events make it fun for your teen to go to these places.

  • For teens, it's important for them to feel like they belong with their peers. So, a teen might choose to identify more with the dominant culture at school.

  • Keep and open-minded view and ask your teen open-ended questions to help them open up.

  • It's never too late to introduce a young person to parts of their culture they can connect to.

  • For parents, if your battery's low, it's going to be hard to deal with difficult situations, like conflict in the home or racism outside of the home. It's important to recharge and reach out if you need extra support.

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        We acknowledge the traditional owners of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to Elders past and present. We recognise connection to Country as integral to health and wellbeing.

        We acknowledge people with lived experience of mental ill-health and recovery and the experience of people who have been carers, families, or supporters.

        ReachOut values diversity. We are committed to providing a safe, culturally appropriate, and inclusive service for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, disability, sexuality, or gender identity.

              Aboriginal flagTorres Strait islander flagRainbow flagAustralian flag

              We acknowledge the traditional owners of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to Elders past and present. We recognise connection to Country as integral to health and wellbeing.

              We acknowledge people with lived experience of mental ill-health and recovery and the experience of people who have been carers, families, or supporters.

              ReachOut values diversity. We are committed to providing a safe, culturally appropriate, and inclusive service for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, disability, sexuality, or gender identity.

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