If there is one inescapable aspect of being a teenager, it is peer group pressure. We have all either experienced it, or will do so at some time in our lives. It doesn’t matter what religion or ethnic community we belong to, or which country we live in. Peer pressure is universal. It can mean pressure to conform to a certain group norm, or it can be the pressure to do something. Why is peer group pressure more of an issue during the teen years, and how can we develop strategies to cope with it positively?
As children reach the teenage years, they begin to spend more and more time with friends, and less time with their family. We all know how important our friends become at this time in our lives, and how embarrassing our parents can be! It is because of the need for recognition and acceptance from our friends that we become so susceptible to their influence. Not all peer group pressure is negative! Our friends can also have a positive influence on us. It is therefore very important to choose our friends carefully.
Try to make friends with others who do well at school, show respect for others, and do not abuse drugs and alcohol, or smoke. A good way to “measure” if your friend is good for you or not, is to check in on how you feel after you have spent time with them. Ask yourself if you feel a better person for having been with them. Do you feel positive , motivated, and inspired? Do you feel like you are a nicer person? Or do you feel angry, negative, and critical of everyone ? Do you like yourself for who you become when you are with them? If not,then it may be time to seriously consider finding some new friends! As difficult and as painful as this may be, it is definitely worth the long term pay-offs it will have.
When teenagers make poor choices in life, their parents, and sometimes even the teens themselves, may blame it on peer pressure. While peer pressure is a reality, it is important to learn how to take responsibility for our own actions, and not to play “the blame game.” Having said this though, there are certain “risk factors” for peer pressure, personality traits that may make us more prone to give in to peer pressure. Gender and age are factors. Boys are more likely than girls to give in to peer pressure, especially when dares or risk situations are involved. Younger teens are more easily influenced by others than older teens.
Peer pressure is felt most in about eighth or ninth grade. Level of self-confidence, individual personality, and degree of maturity, will all play a role in determining whether or not we give in to peer pressure. It can also depend on the situation: being with a close friend, or in a small group of friends, as opposed to being in a large group such as at school. The need for acceptance, approval, and belonging, is a very real and strong need during the teens. It is therefore very important to develop a healthy and positive self-image, and the skills needed to be able to say “No” to risky and negative behavior. http://www.projectprideusa.org/peer-pressure-are-you-being-influenced/#sthash.fD37WGgI.dpuf
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Everyone knows about the negative affects of peer pressure. However, peer pressure can be positive; it is also not as scary as some may believe. "Studies show that, almost always, peer influence is weaker than adults believe" (Black, 2002). Adults tend to underestimate middle school children and their ability to make decisions on their own. When a child commits a wrongdoing, parents automatically want to blame peer influence. Yet research has shown that young adolescents are not necessarily drawn into certain behaviors by peer pressure, rather they decide to be more like their peers on their…
- 1400 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Also, choose your friends carefully because who they are you will become. Numerous people say that their friends do not influence them, but the sad truth is, is that they do. Peer pressure is an outrageous force; therefore you need to choose friends that will benefit you in the long run. Select friends that will elevate your way of living and will lift up your self-esteem. Especially if you’re at the age where you’re trying to figure yourself out, you need to be very cautious of who you surround yourself with. Stay away from those who bring negative energy into your life.…
- 463 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
According to the Wikipedia “Peer group” article, “the term peer pressure is often used to describe instances where an individual feels indirectly pressured into changing his/her behavior to match that of his/ her peers”(“Peer group”). With this stated, it is not rare that today’s society instantly associates the term peer pressure in a negative context. Many would say that peer pressure is a negative method that draws and encourages teens to make potentially harmful and dangerous lifestyle choices. However, what many individuals may be unaware of is that they could be overlooking the positive impacts that peer pressure can contribute towards the development of teens. For instance, many people fail to see how the positive side of peer pressure…
- 816 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Pressure from a teen’s peers will guide the actions an adolescent performs. Whether or not the adolescent decides to subdue to this pressure will shape their identity and personality. Once considered to be the “I wasn’t thinking” response to actions involving peer pressure actually is a phenomenon common among the adolescent brain (Dreifus). In the presence of their friends teens are actually twice as likely to take part in risks they know to be inexcusable behavior. “Having friends nearby doubles the number of risks they take… certain part of the brain is activated by the presence of peers in adolescents, but not in adults.” (Dreifus). Peer pressure will dictate many of the teenager’s actions differently than someone who doesn’t comply with these pressures.…
- 386 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
There are many problems regarding peer pressure. Cigarette smoking and drugs are overcrowding and taking over the once pure world. Our friends influence us greatly, and they are reason why we act or dress the way we do. Almost all teenage smokers and drug abusers began through the influence of a peer, and the fear of looking like a coward…
- 304 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
“Tonight’s evening news carries a story about eight teenagers who attacked a male jogger in his twenties in a park a mile from my home. At a dinner party with friends I hear about their daughter’s grade nine graduation party where girls offered sex to the boys in exchange for 20$ bags of dope… Girls who attend the private school next to my office amble past my window, smoking. With their pleated tartan uniforms pulled up to look like mini skirts. A fast food outlet near my house has had to hire a security guard to make sure adolescents don’t loiter.” (Ungar 2007) We see a lot of this happening and we ourselves often experience this as well, sometimes in more ways that we realize. We hear the examples all the time, but which area seems to be more affected young teens or adults? The examples always seem more prevalent in the younger teens, skipping school, drugs, bullying and alcohol. But what exactly is peer pressure? According to http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-peer-pressure.htm “Peer pressure is a social influence exerted by others on an individual. The pressure is exerted in order to get someone to act or believe in a similar way. The peer pressure is acted out by a peer group against others, often be in an “everybody’s doing it” kind of way.” We all form different groups of friends as we get older and we usually try and do what it takes to fit in, after all we choose friends that are most compatible with us. The Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence states, ”Peers are the individuals with whom a child or…
- 1239 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
Dr.Brown (2012),an article written for the University of Michigan site, contained information on Peer Pressure. This article entailed some causes of Peer Pressure on adoloscents.It states that peers play a major role in a young person’s life and teenagers at this age wants to be liked ,to fit in as they are worried they will be made fun of if they do not go along with the group. “The idea that "everyone's doing it" may influence some kids to leave their better judgment, or their common sense, behind. “The study also describes two levels of Peer Pressure; one occurring in a large group while the second is in the close relationships with one or several best friends. The article correlates with my research objective (2) giving an insight to the causes of Peer Pressure on adolescents.…
- 685 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
This paper will discuss aspects of peer pressure during adolescence. Peer pressure is defined as the social influence that others have on an individual, in this case adolescents. The pressure is applied in order to get an individual to believe or act in a certain way. The form of peer pressure is acted out by ones peer group against other peers and as a result it leads to a change of behavior.…
- 3540 Words
- 15 Pages
Better Essays -
When we think of peer pressure we always think of it in terms of "bad". We think of peer pressure in terms of pressure to; smoke, do illicit drugs, drink alcohol, engage in criminal and quasi-criminal behaviour, do violence, join gangs, etc... We rarely think of the many "good" ways that peer pressure can influence us - and neither do the parents of teens!…
- 665 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Peer pressure is real. Like a disease it infects the mind and moves into the heart tearing the definition of your original being apart. It has no remorse, like a deadly lion on the hunt for prey it marks its weak target carefully and attacks with deadly precision. By definition, peer pressure is the strong influence exerted by those who you associate with. Peer pressure starts when kids start growing older and have a sense of the world, and an opinion to go with it. Some of us are smart enough to ward off trouble when it comes to the wrong kind of pressure, while others sadly get sucked into pressure circles (as I’d like to call them), often because they have weaknesses in their characters that cannot oppose it.…
- 814 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Being a teenager can be extremely difficult in today’s world because of all of the pressures teens face, the stress they go through on a daily basis, and the constant want and need to fit in and be liked by their peers. But aside from all of those issues, one of the biggest challenges that teens face every day is peer pressure. Teens are often influenced to do things by their peers because it’s a person’s tendency to go along with the crowd. Although there is both positive and negative peer pressure, teens are more likely to give into the negative peer pressure such as drinking alcohol, doing drugs, or having sex when they are not ready because there is a thrill that comes along with breaking the rules. Peer pressure is the biggest challenge that teens face because of how it can completely change their lives, either for the better or for the worst.…
- 735 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
During the stages of adolescence comes many changes that will shape the person they will be. These changes could be the result of the pressures adolescence undergo during this period. One major pressure among adolescence is peer pressure. Peer pressure can be a great influence during this period because it comes from the surrounding peers. These intense relationships are formed to get a better understanding of who they are as a person. While an adolescence can be influenced either negative or positive ways, it is allowed them to gain acceptance within that group of peers. When the adolescence receives more negative peer pressure versus positive, the adolescence can lose their identity and could experience identity confusion. Another major pressure that adolescence incur is drug use and abuse. Drug abuse can be a direct result of peer pressure for some…
- 1674 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Peer Pressure is a Positive Influence in teenage society, because “Uh, my friends told me it was”. Does this sound like the sort of thing that you would hear regularly in drafting? (This is a rhetorical question, don’t answer it, as I am about to do that for you.). No, of course it doesn’t, for the simple reason that it is near impossible to write a 400-500 word essay on the positive aspects of peer pressure. As such, I’m going to take the year 9 (Read: Easy) way out of it, and just write a summary of how peer Pressure is a bad influence on teenagers.…
- 443 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Everyone talks about it, but why exactly is peer pressure as bad as everyone makes it seem? Peer pressure is a fancy word for the influence your peers exert on you, and it is mostly associated with teens, as they are most susceptible to such influence. Of course it is impossible to avoid getting influenced by peers altogether, but what is dangerous is that someone stops being independent when making decisions, and starts basing then on the opinions and actions of others. Peer pressure is the leading factor for which teens start using drugs, tobacco, and alcohol, and it is the reason why many teens are having sex at such a young age, thus teens must be educated on the importance of being independent and making their own choices.…
- 823 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
“As the saying goes that a man is known by the company he keeps. Good company can make a man whereas bad company can ruin him. ” Sam Veda. According to Gray (2010). “Human beings are social animals.” “We develop and learn about the world around us through the filter of other people.” (pg.1) Peer pressure can be defined as the influence exerted by a peer or group on an individual to fit in with or conform to a group’s expectations by thinking, feeling, and acting in a like or approved way. There are both positive and negative responses to peer pressure; which are essential to human behavior. Everyone continually experiences peer pressure from our significant others, coworkers, media, school, and even the government through the use of words of encouragement, criticism, or persuasion. For example, as stated by Sarah Kessler (2012). “A recent study at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine supports the theory that peers can influence exercise.” (p.1) Kessler determined from the study that if you hang out with peers who are active then you will be more likely to be active yourself. Peer pressure has been proven to have necessary and positive effects; specifically in boosting self esteem, creating social relationships, and increasing parallel options to facilitated needed change.…
- 1210 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays