Troubled teens need a good home environment with rules and structure. It is very important to have limits and rules in order to help troubled teens develop and grow properly. Without rules there can be no control in your home. Rules should be placed in any home, whether with a troubled teen or not. Homes that have troubled teens need to set more defined and structured rules. This is the key.

When you are setting these more defined rules, you should make multiple levels of prevention to help your troubled teen. A good example is when the rule, don't do drugs is in place. This rule is too broad and is not specific. Helping troubled teens requires specifics. Break it down by making rules about who they hang out with, what kinds of things they are doing with their friends, where they are permitted to go, and when they can or cannot go.

Having specific rules set in place is only half of the job. Once you have these rules, you need to get your troubled teen to comply with them. In order to help troubled teens comply with the rules, four main things must be in place. They are:

1. Your troubled teen must clearly understand the rules that have been set.

2. The rules must be monitored effectively.

3. The rules need to be continually enforced.

4. Effective consequences must be used when a teen does not comply.

If these four guidelines cannot be met when trying to enforce the rules, it will be extremely difficult to achieve success. Helping troubled teens depends on your ability to be consistent and specific. Being consistent is one of the hardest things when trying to help troubled teens, but it is one of the most important concepts. If a troubled teen is expected to follow the rules, their parents should be able to follow through and stick to them.

The consequences you choose to put in place need to be strong. If they are not then the troubled teen will most likely just ignore them and not comply with any of your rules. They need to know that you are serious and will do what you say you will do. Knowing how to help troubled teens is only confusing when the parent is not ready to be consistent with their child. Parents can help their teens overcome the many obstacles that face them. It just takes structure and consistency.