Healthy Relationships

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Why it works

Healthy relationships, with friends, peers, family, and others, are central to students' wellbeing, yet students are rarely taught explicitly what makes a relationship healthy or unhealthy. Teaching this (in age-appropriate ways) helps students understand and build relationships based on respect, trust, honest communication, kindness, support, and healthy boundaries, and recognize signs of unhealthy relationships (disrespect, control, manipulation, lack of boundaries). This builds on relationship skills but focuses on the qualities and recognition of healthy versus unhealthy relationships, equipping students to form good friendships, treat others well, set and respect boundaries, and recognize and respond to relationships that are not good for them. It is foundational social-emotional learning with lifelong value, developing students' capacity for the healthy connections that underpin a good life.

The research: SEL; research on healthy relationships education.

The run-of-show

Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.

The core activity: teach the qualities of healthy relationships

Teachers leave teaching healthy relationship qualities, age-appropriately.

Teach the qualities of healthy relationships (respect, trust, honest communication, kindness, support, boundaries).
Help students recognize signs of unhealthy relationships (disrespect, control, manipulation, no boundaries).
Connect to building good friendships and treating others well.
Teach it age-appropriately.

A compass for relationshipsTeaching the qualities of healthy relationships, respect, trust, communication, boundaries, and how to recognize unhealthy ones gives students a compass for the connections that shape their lives.

Facilitator notes

Teach the qualities of healthy relationships, and teach recognizing unhealthy ones.
Connect to friendships and treating others well.
Keep it age-appropriate.

Students left to figure out relationships alone can learn the wrong lessonsWithout guidance, students may normalize unhealthy relationship patterns. Teach the qualities of healthy relationships and how to recognize unhealthy ones, age-appropriately.

Adapt it

Elementary: friendship, respect, kindness, boundaries.
Secondary: respect, trust, communication, boundaries, recognizing unhealthy.
All settings: qualities of healthy relationships, age-appropriate.

Participant handout

One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.

K12 Academics · Professional Learning

Healthy Relationships: a compass for life

What good looks like: teach respect, trust, communication, and boundaries, and how to recognize unhealthy relationships.

The qualities of healthy relationships I teach (respect, trust, communication, boundaries):
How I help students recognize unhealthy relationships:
How I connect to good friendships and treating others well:
How I keep it age-appropriate:
A relationship quality to teach:

Make it stick

A compass for life:

Teach the qualities of healthy relationships.
Keep it age-appropriate.
Bring a healthy-relationships lesson to the next PLC.

Common questions

What does teaching healthy relationships involve?

Helping students understand the qualities of healthy relationships, respect, trust, honest communication, kindness, support, and boundaries, and recognize signs of unhealthy ones (disrespect, control, manipulation). It is age-appropriate SEL.

How is this different from relationship skills?

Relationship skills focus on communication and conflict resolution; this focuses on the qualities and recognition of healthy versus unhealthy relationships, what a good relationship looks like and how to recognize one that is not.

Is this appropriate for all ages?

Yes, taught age-appropriately, focusing on friendships and respectful relationships in elementary, and broadening appropriately in secondary. The qualities, respect, trust, boundaries, apply across ages.