Board Games Create Stronger Families and Happier Teens
While a board game seems like a simple and low effort way to make a Saturday evening fun, it can often mean much more than that for families.
Unlike watching TV or playing video games, sitting down to play a board game face to face encourages families to connect and spend quality time together. This quality time creates a foundation of trust between children and their parents, which plays a heavy hand in preventing depression, anxiety, and substance misuse in children as they develop.
Studies have shown that children and teens who spend more quality time with their parents and family members have a stronger sense of self-worth. When parents participate and are present with their family in a board game, they’re communicating their desire to spend time with their child and the value that their child has in their life. These small, positive communications are what help to build the strong sense of self-worth that keep youth from struggling with feelings of inadequacy and incompetency.
Board games also create a low-stakes way for children and teens to learn how to identify and regulate their emotions and behaviors. These lessons help teens know how to manage their own feelings and actions in real-life so that they don’t respond to their stress or anxiety with negative coping skills, such as self-criticism or substance use. Negative coping skills make stress worse and can often be self-destructive.
While one board game night won’t fix every problem, weekly board game nights are a great tool you can use to strengthen your family and create healthy and happy individuals.
One of the main focuses of Youth180 is building resilient families. That’s why this year, our organization is hosting a holiday drive to provide board games as gifts for the children and families who live in Dallas Housing Authorities communities.