Introduction
Teenagers will always try to fit and get along with their peers especially during the present time when they spend fewer moments with families and more being in engagements in various activities with colleagues and friends. Adolescence, for instance, is the time when peers impact an increasingly important role in the lives of many youths. Teenagers start developing friendships which tend to be more exclusive, constant and intimate than in their younger years (De Guzman, 2007). After all, friendships are unavoidable and, in many ways; they form essential components of our developments. What we all know is that peer pressure influences how peers make decisions, and it makes those decisions seem slightly difficult. A classic example is when to say you are relaxing around with a couple of friends playing some video games and one of the friends mentions a specific game which coincidentally happens to be your favorite. And you hear one of your friends dismissively says, “Oh, that’s one of the easiest games, it’s not worth our time” Deep inside you, it’s one of those you happen to enjoy crazily but, outwardly, you don’t want to engage in debating the issue, and eventually follow the crowd. In essence, you have literally experienced peer pressure. It might be more accurate referring to it as social influence, or peer influence to adopt a specific type of attitude, behavior, dress, a way of thinking or acting and so on. This way, you can be accepted to form part of the group made of your peers (‘equals”) (Hunda, 2015). We know that friendships provide safe platforms where teenagers can feel not only accepted but also explore their identities and develop some sense of togetherness and belonging.
Peer influence does not necessarily refer to a negative thing. However, it can have positive and negative effects on teens. We are all subject to the receivership of influence from our peers, either positively or negatively, at whatever age. Friendship, however, allows youths to foster and exercise social skills which can be helpful for their future successes (De Guzman, 2007). For teenagers, as schooling and other extracurricular activities take them away from home, they often spend much of their times with friends more than they would do with siblings and parents. It is this kind of scenario which creates a lot of room for friendship and peer influence to take center stage in the lives of teenagers. In the process, teens feel to form parts of the lives of their fellow teenagers hence making it easy for them to develop close ties and create that weak point for peer influence. As these teens become independent, their peers naturally impact a bigger role in their lives. Teenagers can aspire for good grades and therefore, join a club led by a peer whom they admire. Sometimes, though, specifically, in emotional circumstances, resisting social influence can be difficult- it really evolves to being “pressure”-and teenagers may have the feeling of being compelled to doing something they are uncomfortable with (Hunda, 2015). For instance, teens can find themselves under pressure to do and take part in some bad activities like stealing or drinking, that they might not have been involved in were they on their own. It has been documented that teens are more susceptible to engaging in risky behaviors than adults (Edwards, de Guzman, Brown, & Kumru, 2006). For instance, teenagers are more likely than adults to use varied substances which are illicit in nature, to drive in a reckless manner, to drive under intoxication, to engage in unprotected sex and to be involved in both major and minor antisocial behaviors.
The Consequences of Peer Pressure
Negative peer influence arises when teens persuade their friends to do something which may be they would not have really wanted to do or those things which are not in their best interest (Brown, Clasen & Eicher, 2006). These could include drinking alcohol, taking drugs, ditching school, involvement in sexual activities, destroying property, shoplifting and so on. These negative actions have far many severe consequences such as getting drug or alcohol addiction, damaging one’s body and probably causing death among others. Negative peer or social influence can get teenagers into trouble at school, with their parents, or even with the law enforcers. The long term implication of negative peer influence can not only lead to rouge adulthood but also cases of death or may lead to a teen causing death either unconsciously or as part of acquired habit. Therefore, it is very key to avert any progression of negative pressure and influence on our teenagers.
Positive peer influence, on the other hand, arises when teens are influenced by their friends to take part in and do good things like being actively engaged in school events and activities, or undertakings things to assist primarily the realize their goals (Brown et al. 2006). Sometimes positive peer influence comes when one lacks the courage of doing something and friends offer that extra self-esteem or push to ensure it is done. Positive peer influence can lead to bigger things such as good grades, positive attitude, new meaningful friends, new identified or found talents, volunteer for social and community services, participation in sports and productive endeavors among others. Positive peer influence therefore, should be an adored and encouraged phenomenon amongst our teenagers. In additional to contributing to healthy and straight adulthood, positive peer influence also enables teens to have an expanded growth and development throughout their childhood, adolescence, youth, all the way to adulthood.
Nonetheless, parents, siblings, and other adults may grow concern when watching their teenagers get preoccupied with their peers. Of course, most of the parents worry that their teenagers may fall for the negative peer influence and then reject or abandon their family beliefs and values, alongside being pressured to get involved in high-risk and negative behaviors (Dunst & Dempsey, 2007). Peer influence, in actuality, is pretty more complex than the stereotyping negative influences we do receive from our friends. Again, peer influence is never such a simple process whereby teenagers become passive recipients of others’ influence. In fact, teens that develop friendship tend to share lots of things in common. Those with similar academic grading, similar interests, and enjoy doing similar things always tend to gravitate closer to each other. Therefore, in as much as it might seem that teenagers and their close friends become similar to one another via peer influence, it is necessary to note that much of those similarities were present from the start of their friendship (Edwards et al. 2006).
How Friendship Impact Teen Lives
Again, as mentioned at the beginning of this paper, a friendship which emerges during adolescent stages tends to be more consistent, more exclusive and more complex than during the earlier childhood. Newer types (such as romantic ties, opposite sex) and levels (such as cliques, best friends, and ‘crowds”) of friendship and relationships come into the picture, and teenagers start developing the capacity and space for intimate, very close and deep affections (De Guzman, 2007). The perception that adults hold on peers to be having a different culture or unified dangerous influence seems untrue. In most cases, peers do reinforce family beliefs and values; however, they too have the potential of encouraging problematic behaviors. Even though negative peer influence receives more attention and emphasis, a lot can be done in helping teens to experience both the peer group and the family as constructive environments in a mutual manner.
Relationships between teens and their parents during the adolescence seem more often renegotiated other than rejected. During this same phase, teenagers become more autonomous and assume more adult responsibilities. At the same time, they develop their individual ideas and begin shaping their lives. They start spending more time with their friends. They also tend to value these friends more than they actually used to do before. Hence, it might appear as if they beginning to delink from their families. But in actual sense, these teenagers are practically renegotiating the child-parent relationship (Brown et al. 2006). The meaning of this is that teens begin shifting the relationship to incorporate an increase in their maturity and independence. As they become more mature, their relationship with parents naturally begins to move away from parents.
In spite of the fears that parents have over their teenagers rejecting their beliefs and values, parents still continue to be significant influence (Edwards et al. 2006). Teenagers always report when they have religious, political, and conventional beliefs same to those their parents while at the same time regarding their parents as the most influential and significant in their lives. The positive teen-parent relationship also enables teens to have healthy relationships with friends. Typically, conflicts arise due to connection negotiation together with continued attempts by parents in socializing their teens. Parents, therefore, need to involve teens rule-setting and decision-making that impact their lives.
Friendship, unlike in childhood, where it meant a couple of close friends, teenagers usually have multiple friends. They also belong to several groups. Therefore, they are likely to have a close relationship or intimate with a handful of people, and may belong to more than one “cliques” or grouping of friends with same demographics, (race, sex, and socioeconomic class), orientation as far as schooling is concerned among other interests. However, we need to note that peer friendships are dynamic- meaning; they are prone to changes (De Guzman, 2007). For example, while teenagers can have peers who are long term, they usually migrate from one clique to the other and stand the chance of developing new friendships and losing other friends. Again, peer influence and friendship can offer a healthy platform for positive teen development by providing a safe place for teenagers to explore the identities which they possess, practice autonomy and learn about other social norms. Healthy teen friendships also provide social support for the teens to deal with some adolescence challenges and may also offer them more positive experiences during their teen years.
Strategies for Handling Peer Pressure
While it has been clearly made that peer pressure and peer influence does not necessarily have to bear negative effects, peer pressure has the potential to lead teenagers to unsafe and unhealthy behaviors. To minimize these negative effects, teenagers, parents, siblings, schools, and the community must join hands and establish effective and workable strategies for guiding teen behaviors and nurture their safe transition from childhood to mature adulthood (Dunst & Dempsey, 2007). Some of these strategies might include; firstly, nurturing their self-esteem and abilities to ensure that they are well-equipped to be able to foster positive-oriented peer relationships and abandon negative influence. Teens bearing positive self-worth and self-concept will be unlikely to get swayed in following negative influences of others.
Secondly, offering an encouragement of the existence of positive relationships between significant teenagers and adults. Parents, schools counselors, teachers, relatives and other professionals need to exhibit constructive and positive relationship with teens. Thirdly, giving encouragement to diverse relationships would greatly help- from parents’ community leaders, educators, and clergies (De Guzman, 2007). Doing so will lead to an appreciation for gender, socioeconomic status, ethnic, religious and other classifications, and support cross-group relationships. Thirdly, offering support to parent education programs especially for families with teens. Parents require better information about the dynamics that happen in peer groups including the expectations and demand that these teenagers face in such relationships (Hunda, 2015).
Fourth, equipment of teens with relevant skills necessary for resisting negative and antisocial behavior, including how to make the right decisions offers another excellent strategy. Teens will always be faced with circumstances demanding them to make decisions in regards to engaging in certain activities or behaviors, whether to bow to peer influence and other tough decisions. Necessary skills would help them to analyze the situations at hand and arrive at the most appropriate choices. Such skills may include cost vs. benefits analysis, where they can be taught on looking at both the positive and negative implication of an action. For instance, when a teen is pressured to start smoking, the teenager should be in a position to evaluate the possible undesired results (such as looking ‘cool’, peer acceptance, excitement about doing something new) against possible desired results (such as health issues, bad smell, financial costs and becoming hooked). Finally, teaching teens exit strategies or how to say ‘no’ no negative influence. It is better to handle peer pressure before allowing a negative action to happen. Teens need to be addressed on potential scenarios, and strategies on how those situations can be dealt with in the event that they arise.
Conclusion
During early childhood, peers play a great part in the lives of young people even if the family remains to be significant. Generally, peer friendships provide teenagers with lots of positive opportunities in spite of the arising negative connotations brought about in our lives by negative peer pressure. Peer relations are essential for healthy development and critical for teens to grow into healthy and responsible adults. Nonetheless, peer relationships too have the capacity and space to encourage problematic behaviors. Even though the negative peer influence gets over-emphasized, a lot can be done in helping teens to experience both their peer groups and their families as mutual constructive environments to their growth and development. For this to be accomplished, families, schools, churches, communities and other teen groups can all participate and contribute in helping teens to develop positive and healthy peer relationships, and neglect or defect unwanted or negative peer influences and pressures.
References
Hunda, A. L. (2015). Social Anxiety Disorder in Adolescence and Implications for School Settings. Doctoral dissertation, Laurentian University Sudbury.
De Guzman, M. (2007). Friendships, Peer Influence, and Peer Pressure During the Teen Years.
Edwards, C. P., de Guzman, M. R., Brown, J., & Kumru, A. (2006). Children's Social Behaviors and Peer Pnteractions in Diverse Cultures.
Dunst, C. J., & Dempsey, I. (2007). Family–Professional Partnerships and Parenting Competence, Confidence, and Enjoyment. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 54(3), 305-318.
Brown, B. B., Clasen, D. R., & Eicher, S. A. (2006). Perceptions of Peer Pressure, Peer Conformity Dispositions, and Self-Reported Behavior Among Adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 22(4), 521.
