People learn in many ways. One of them is through watching others. Psychologist, Albert Bandura discovered the Social Learning Theory where he suggested that social behaviour is learned by observing and imitating the behaviour of others. Due to this research, adults can be a big influence on how younger people around them behave and act.

Children and teens are always watching adults around them. They see how adults handle stress, how they handle conflict, their emotions, habits, and many more.

Through role modeling, adults and older siblings have the ability to influence younger people in a positive way which is a very powerful parenting tool.

Just remember though, that it is hard to model appropriate behaviour all the time and that’s OK. Making mistakes and modeling how to overcome these are just as important.