Staff Reporter
South African teenagers, often overlooked in development planning despite making up more than 17% of the country’s population, are the focus of a new free guide aimed at helping adults support them through adolescence.
Hold My Hand, a national child and teen advocacy campaign, has published Supporting Teen Identity Development: A Guide for Adults, a plain-language resource for parents, caregivers, teachers and mentors to better understand what teenagers are experiencing and how to support them.
The guide covers adolescent development, including brain development, peer pressure, mental health and social media. It also includes practical tools and conversation prompts adults can use immediately.
Hold My Hand said adolescence was “one of the most important windows of opportunity” in a young person’s life, when teenagers build identity, resilience, connectedness and purpose — or fall into risk.
The organisation said teenagers in South Africa were navigating the transition to adulthood while also facing poverty, violence, social media pressure, HIV, school dropout, gangsterism and limited future opportunities.
“In these conditions, a strong sense of identity is not a nice-to-have, it is what keeps teens grounded,” it said.
Teenagers who feel seen, supported and connected are more likely to develop positive identities, make safer choices, stay in school and build towards positive futures.
“Hold My Hand created the guide to give adults the tools to show up for the teenagers in their lives. Teens don’t need the adults in their lives to have all the answers – they just need adults to be present, willing to listen and learn,” said Shirely Eadie, Lead Teen Identity at Hold My Hand.
The guide supports one of the 10 priorities of the National Strategy to Accelerate Action for Children, a Presidency-led initiative calling on government, civil society, the private sector and families to mobilise around South Africa’s children and teenagers.
Hold My Hand said building teenagers’ sense of identity, agency and connectedness was central to the strategy.
The guide is available for free download at Hold My Hand’s website and can be read in sections as teenagers grow and change.
The organisation will also host a webinar, “The Power to Be(come): why adolescent identity matters in South Africa”, on Wednesday, June 24 at 3pm on Zoom. The discussion will draw on new Human Sciences Research Council insights and explore what builds purpose, belonging and agency in teenagers, and what undermines them.
Speakers include Dr Rose September of DGMT, Dr Alude Mahali of the HSRC, Dr Shahieda Jansen of Awehmagents and Thando Nkosi of Hold My Hand. The session will be facilitated by Dr Katlego Selikane of Keready.
INSIDE EDUCATION
