No, you can't see your friends: Getting teens to accept Covid-19 restrictions

For adolescents, particularly in puberty, friends are often more important than family members. Photo: Axel Bueckert/Zoonar.com/dpa

For adolescents, particularly in puberty, friends are often more important than family members. Since they strongly identify with their social circle, they can take coronavirus stay-at-home orders and restrictions on contact with other people as an infringement of their very identity.

”This stokes frustration and anger that they usually take out on their blameless parents and siblings, ” says Kira Liebmann, a family coach who specialises in adolescents.