Friendships often change as children move into their adolescent years. The transition into secondary schools will have already thrown up challenges of maintaining and changing friends, and it can take time for some teenagers to find those young people they really connect with and are going to form close, healthy bonds with going forward.

As teenagers are developing and finding out more about their own identity, feelings and abilities they often start to mix with different people and groups among their peers than before. You may find that as your teenager defines particular interests and future directions, they make new friendships with other teens with similar interests. That is not to say that all their friendships, from when they were younger, will fall away, just that they may alter their circle of friends.

Sometimes as teenagers mature, they also discover that perhaps the friendships or groups they are in are not healthy or appropriate for them anymore. They begin to make decisions about who they are going to want to mix with in their future and seek more like-minded young people.

Here are a few points to remember when talking about friendships with your teenager:

• It can take time to make a good friend. Friendships build over time as you spend time together and communicate.
• Honesty, care and trust are important in a friendship.
• If you want to have a good friend, you need to be a good friend. Think about how you would like to be treated as a friend.
• You need to make an effort to have and keep good friendships. I you neglect them they may fade.
• Friends sometimes have disagreements each other, but they can always apologise and forgive each other.
• It is okay for friends to outgrow each other. People change as they find new interests and people to hang out with as they mature.