Why is my teen-age daughter stealing?...

[Cyclefrance]

My wife works as an Education Welfare Officer (EWO) - meaning she looks after children who skip school or who fall into bad ways. Stealing features a lot and it can be down to any one of a number of issues, certainly including those mentioned here. It's too early in the information stage to say what is behind this. Among the many causes not yet mentioned that my wife comes across, there's peer pressure (the need to feel part of a group that requires stealing in order to be cool), bullying, and, more than she would like to see, financing a drugs habit.

Whatever is at the root of it you do need to find out, and it may require involving your daughter's school and the services of and EWO or your equivalent. By all means talk over the problem in the way Kagen404 suggests , but if you get resistance then I wouldn't pursue the matter too heavily yourself. It's too easy to tackle the problem the wrong way and escalate rather than remove the problem. These are formative years and if there is something deeper at the source of this apparently growing habit the sooner it is surfaced the better. The EWO service has back-up from professionals in many quarters, and often the EWO. as in my wife's case, has qualifications in necessary areas, particularly counselling and psychology.

Hope above helps