Helping young people to deal effectively with difficult social situations

At times we will all be confronted with difficult social situations where someone is saying something we find challenging.  This may be saying unkind or inappropriate things about a friend or acquaintance or may be statements contrary to our own beliefs.  Many people find these situations awkward and uncomfortable. Young people are developing the skills to effectively manage these kinds of scenarios and may need some help to do this.  

There are three commonly used but less useful/functional reactions to difficult social interactions, these are:

• Passive
• Aggressive/angry 
• Passive aggressive.  

Better ways of managing difficult social interactions are:

Consciously deciding that the incident is not worth your time or effort to deal with and to ignore it or walk away from it.  The difference between this and being passive is that this is a considered decision rather than simply allowing someone to do something to you.  

Another option is to choose to act assertively.  Whilst this can be difficult to do at times it may be the best choice.  Acting assertively means to state your needs/thoughts in a calm, non-threatening way.  

Young people may need help to think through these options and it may be helpful to practice in advance, so you are more confident of saying what you want to say.  People who may be able to help with this are class teachers, counsellors, school deans, parents or more socially confident peers.