Liliana Lengua is featured in this Seattle Times article about helping teens deal with the pandemic
How to help your teenagers if they’re having a tough time during the pandemic
By Chris Talbott
Special to The Seattle Times
During these pandemic times, Liliana Lengua has three teenagers living in her home, and all three are super bummed.
Her oldest is finishing out her freshman year of college in her parents’ house, not her sorority house. Her 17-year-old should be getting ready for graduation, but is missing out on that and a lot of other awesome things. And her 13-year-old bought a beautiful new dress and shoes for an eighth-grade graduation she’ll never attend.
As a professor of child psychology and the director of the University of Washington’s Center for Child and Family Well-Being, Lengua is uniquely qualified to handle all the problems and emotions hurled her way at home every day. But it may comfort all you parents of teenagers out there to know that even she struggles to keep a lid on everything.
“It’s definitely a roller coaster,” Lengua said. “And even with my training, I’m in the same boat. My kids will say that me being a child psychologist does not necessarily make me a better parent.”
The teenage years are an emotional time under the best of circumstances due to all the changes adolescents go through. Add in the disappointment, uncertainty and disruption the coronavirus pandemic has brought and Seattle’s health professionals are seeing teens struggling at a much steeper level than usual.
Read the entire article here.