Have you ever had a friend who wanted you to do something that you may or may not wanted to do but still did it anyway because they are your friend? According to the “Children’s Health Wellness” article it states “Peer pressure is internal or external pressure felt to behave in certain ways, both good and bad. Peer pressure begins as early as age 10 with the forming of social groups in elementary school and increases during adolescence, throughout junior high and high school.” Peer pressure in teens can impact your daily life and maintain or create “beef” between your friendships. Many teens need or want friends and desire acceptance from our peers. Teens can become vulnerable to doing what your other your friends are doing whether it is right or wrong. This can cause teens to feel pressured to agree to doing things that are wrong, that goes against family beliefs, and even worse getting in trouble with law enforcement or school authority. For example, at school your friends could invite you to ditch your class and hang out with them in the bathroom or in other classes that have substitute teachers who don’t know that you don’t belong in that class. Peer pressure causes you to sacrifice important things for a cheap thrill that can cost you your grades and your trust with your family for you so called “friends”. Many teens become victims to peer pressure because they don’t know how to not participate without losing their friendships because they struggle with verbally disagreeing with their friends, so they cave to peer pressure.
Therefore, peer pressure can impact your social and academic life because you can become unmotivated and withdrawn from school, family, and friends. The article gives the example “The effects of peer pressure can manifest differently in each person. Peer pressure can play on certain strengths or challenges that an adolescent already faces. For example, a teen with low confidence and few close friends may be more susceptible to the effects of negative peer pressure, while a confident, extroverted teen may be more likely to give and receive positive peer pressure.” Many teens can relate to this example because when we are teens we are still developing, and our hormones are still changing. During this period, we are more sensitive to our self-image, self-esteem, and friendships. The major reason why most teens are victims of peer pressure is because of the desire to fit in or be accepted by others. Negative peer pressure encourages negative behavior such as ditching class and hiding in the bathroom stalls of the school to ditching and fighting. Whereas positive peer pressure encourages positive behavior such as participating in school clubs, sports, and improves our self-confidence.
