Peer Pressure

Is peer pressure, among teenagers, a good or a bad thing?
A Bio-club is set up at school. One of the students is interested, he might want to join and he tells his friends about it. They do not react as the boy hoped, they say joining a bio-club is a nerd-thing to do, it’s a waste of free time and it brings unnecessary work. The boy laughs and says he knew that, and was just wondering which of their classmates ‘are nerd enough’ to join the bio-club. After this talk with his friends he decides not to join the bio-club.
A girl fancies a boy, but she is to shy to talk to him. She tells her friends about this boy. Her friends encourage her to go to the boy and speak with him. With this encouragement of her friends she goes to the boy and they become very good friends.
Both the boy and the girl were influenced by their peers. They were affected by peer pressure. Peer pressure is the influence that people who are equal in a group have on each other. Peer pressure can occur at all ages, it is not limited to adolescents. Peer pressure can occur with young children, for example one kid could influence others on the decision what game they should play on the playgrounds. Adults are influenced by peer pressure as well, mostly concerning their financial status. Peer pressure happens to everyone, even to the most popular kid in school. We mostly think of peer pressure in bad terms, teenagers doing dangerous things to be part of a group, making decisions not based upon their own ideas. But does peer pressure always exercise influence in a bad way? Should we avoid peer pressure?
Peer pressure is a natural phenomenon. It is 'A healthy part of every child's development is involvement with their peers. This is especially true during adolescence as teenagers develop a sense of independence from their parents.'¹ Very young children learn from watching and copying their parents. When they grow up (3-4 years old) they start to see other opinions and rules. They will try to break or bend the rules from their parents, testing how far they can go. Getting older (age 5-11) they’ll see more opinions, make friends and learn their values. They start to get affected by opinions and performances of others, for example if one boy in the class reads very well his friends might try harder to perform better as well. Their parents however are still the main role models. When the children become teenagers, and later on adolescents (age 12-18), they start to change emotionally, physically and socially rather quickly. Peer relations become more important and they start to take a bigger role in the child’s life. The children start to question their parents’ standards and are becoming more independent from their parents. Friends and peer groups become the new source for social contacts, advise and entertainment. They offer understanding, experiment and sympathy. This causes peer pressure, the social pressure to be similar to their peers.
Some give in to peer pressure much quicker than others do. There are certain features you can have which will make you more vulnerable to peer pressure. For example: low self-esteem, lack of confidence, fear for your peers, uncertainty about your place in a group, lack of true friends or feeling isolated. Teenagers often give in to not be excluded from a group or to look cool. Peer pressure has influence on several things, choices, actions, decisions etc. It can motivate, but also make you do things that you feel is wrong. If peer pressure is positive or negative depends on the consequences its has. If it encourages children to have positive attitudes, think about their decisions and actions, have a good spirit of teamwork, work hard in school or sports and have high health values it is obviously positive. If it encourages children to have bad attitudes, to get into trouble, don’t care about schoolwork or sports it is of course negative. Positive peer pressure can have consequences like performing well in school and sports, being motivated for projects and working together with peers well. Negative peer pressure can have severe consequences like the misuse of drugs, alcohol, underage sex, self-harm and bullying. Because of such consequences it is important for a child to choose the right school and sport club.
Because of these consequences it is good to know how to handle negative peer pressure. The best way of doing this is always to always think about decisions and acts before they are carried out. Do you really want to do this? Is this reasonable to do? This is of course hard when someone is in a tricky situation with a lot of peer pressure going on. Preparation is a way of dealing with such situations, for example: what would you say when someone offers you a cigarette while you don’t want to smoke? Self-confidence is a conspicuous tool to handle negative peer pressure. Most important to achieve self-confidence is to believe and keep true to in your own opinion and values. Dare to say your opinion. If your friends react in a mean way or badly, you must ask yourself if these people really are your friends and if you want them to be your friends. Of course they can have a different opinion, but if they start to get mean or start to bully you about it, they are not worth associating with.
Is teenage peer pressure good or bad? Neither, it is natural. It is part of the social development of a child. It is not necessarily bad to follow the crowd, it is bad to follow the crowd blindly. It is bad to make decisions and acts without thinking and considering them. It is not necessarily bad to be influenced by peers, as long as you are certain it is your decision. It is about how you handle the opinions and values of others. Peer pressure is neither good nor bad, it depends on the effects it has on you.



¹Bruce A. Epstein, in The Importance of Peer Pressure!

Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_pressure
http://library.thinkquest.org/3354/Resource_Center/Virtual_Library/Peer_Pressure/peer.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/peer-pressure
http://teenadvice.about.com/library/weekly/qanda/blpeerpressure.htm
http://teenadvice.about.com/cs/peerpressure/a/blpeerpressure.htm