There are a lot of different things influencing our worldview and mind: economical, political, cultural, technological and social changes, urbanization and mass media. These factors can vary depending on the social status, country, environment in which the one lives. The influence is more significant if we speak about adolescents, as in this age the personality is being formed and is easily influenced by the world around.
The relationship of adolescents with their families, peers and social sphere members are very important for their life and development. Adolescence is the period when young people can be significantly influenced by others. With the help of peers adolescents begin to understand the formation, existence and their personality. According to the researchers, there are four main relationships that influence young people most of all: parents, peers, society and community.
In early childhood parents are most important people for everybody. However, when children are in the adolescence period, there is always a significant possibility of conflict with parents. Due to their development process, teenagers want to feel more independent. The main reasons of conflicts include “clothing style, curfew, the right to privacy and other issues of parents’ control. Relationships with friends may also increase the possibility of conflict, as the opinions of family and peers may not coincide. One more factor that influences the adolescents’ behavior and leads to conflict with parents is internet, and especially social media that has entered teenagers’ life to a significant extent in the recent years. Social networking sites and internet have become an integral part of adolescent’s life. They have their pros and cons. One of the main disadvantages of visiting social networking sites by adolescents is that they put too much personal information on the above-mentioned sites, and this might be potentially dangerous.
Parents are usually afraid to notice their children’s unusual behavior and friends’ influence on them. Very often the issues causing conflicts are insignificant and teenagers continue to have the same opinion as before regarding the important life issues. Good relations family decrease the adolescents’ engagement into different risk behaviors, such as drinking, smoking, fighting and unprotected sex” ('Cultural and Societal Influences on Adolescent Development', 2014).
Very often parents cannot understand the young people’s desire for less control and do not see the real reasons for it, as the child is still fully dependant on them. Sometimes it leads to quarrels and conflicts. In many situations the relations with parents during the period of adolescence get worse than before. It is rather difficult to maintain warm relations. Parents should be very patient and understanding with the adolescent child, give him or her more freedom, but at the same time not too much and not to provoke conflicts that can cause serious consequences.
The quality of child-parent relationships is associated with:
- “Educational achievement and learning skills. Children’s reading skills are associated with surrounding reading environment and parents’ involvement with studies is associated with students’ achievement.
- Social competence. Lack of conflict, parental warmth, monitoring and control play a significant role in children’s social skills development.
- Adolescents’ views on themselves.
- Delinquency and aggressive ‘externalizing’ behavior. The more extreme the parents’ circumstances, the worse the results for children and possibility of psychological disturbance.
- Anxiety, depression and other similar problems, including cases, where physical symptoms are associated with the social withdrawal and emotional stress.
- High-risk behaviors for health, such as drug use, smoking, sexually risky behavior, alcohol use, and, as some researchers say, obesity” (Utting, 2007).
Although most of the families face transformations in parent-child relationships as their children enter adolescence period without bad consequence, “some families still have difficulties. One of the most risky factors is hostility by early adolescents and parents. The hostility puts young people at risk for problems’ externalizing and is associated with fathers’ and mothers’ wellbeing, even when considering exaggerated parenting control and young people’s affiliation with peers” (Buehler, 2006).
Parents are always an example for their children. Therefore, there is no doubt that children very often follow their behavior. In case parents read much, the children will read much too. Parents engaged in sports usually have active children. At the same time, in case father or mother has any bad habit (smoking, drinking, and etc.), there is a significant possibility that the child will do the same. So, it is strongly recommended for parents to show only good example to their children that will be the best protection for them.
Peers’ Influence
Peers are very important in the adolescents’ life too. Friendships always influence the teenagers’ behavior “regardless of the characteristics of their friends. As children begin to have close relationships with others, they start to form friendship and this may be to their development’s benefit. Relationships with peers get more important when there is a decrease of parents’ control in their lives.
Peer groups give children the possibility to develop certain social skills such as sharing, empathy and leadership. Peer groups may have positive influences upon the individual, such as good performance and motivation to study. Also they can negatively influence young people and encourage drinking, drug use, stealing, vandalism and other risky behaviors.
Emotional acceptance of various issues by peers may sometimes lead to sadness or even depression. Adolescents often associate themselves with crowds or groups of people, with whom they share common activities and interests. Crowd identities often become the reason for stereotyping, Crowds become less important during high school, when the adolescents identify themselves more individually.
The investigations show that the “peers’ role may be relevant to the violence, risk behaviors, health, well-being and feelings about school, indirectly and directly. Impact, whether negative or positive, is associated with the behavior types adopted by friends. Friends that have a larger involvement in risky behaviors will, most probably, make a negative influence on their peers. Friends, that have better behaviors and more simplicity in communicating, will make a positive influence on their peers. The role of parents should not be ignored in the process of mediation of that influence. Health promotion activities targeted at teenagers should take into account the positive and important role that peers can have in the popularization of a healthy lifestyle” (Tomé, 2012).
Parents may contribute to their children’s positive environment by bringing them into the company of good people. For example, if the child attends any extracurricular activities (music, drawing, dancing, etc.), he or she will communicate with more intelligent peers there, and therefore the possibility of risky behavior appearance will be significantly reduced. If parents spend more time with their children themselves, they leave less time for communication with deviant peers.
Community and Society’s Influence
There are some characteristics of development in the adolescence period that are more related to culture than to cognitive structures or human biology. Culture is socially shared and learned, and it influences all aspects of a person's life. Sexual expression, social responsibilities and belief system development, for example, are all more likely to change based on culture. Many distinguishing features of a person (such as employment, dress, language and recreation) are all products of teenage culture.
Families’ differences in the financial responsibilities distribution or allowance provision may reflect different intrafamilial processes and social background circumstances. The amount of time young people spend on leisure activities and work varies significantly by culture due to cultural variations” ('Cultural and Societal Influences on Adolescent Development', 2014).
Peers are often considered as a “potentially bad influence, leading the teenagers into risky experiments (e.g. with sex and drugs), ignoring of responsibilities (e.g. homework) and hostility to adult society and adults. Peer opinions are often considered to be the antithesis of those of parents. But in real life it is not always the case.
Actually, we all choose our friends, and young people choose their friends having similar interests. If someone is a smoker, he most probably will not choose to communicate most of the time with the people engaged into sports. Adolescents themselves admit that, although they are the subject to peer influence sometimes, they do not normally experience this as a major impact on their opinion or as something that they find difficult to handle.
Furthermore, peer influences vary across different aspects of life. It is quite significant regarding appearance (e.g. clothing, hairstyle) and socializing (e.g. dating). Evidence confirms that young people’s choice of peers is influenced by their parents (i.e. the parents discourage or encourage friendships) and that the influence of friends’ behavior is restricted by parents’ guidance. The peers are important, but only to certain extent” (Durkin, n.d.).
Siblings’ influence. Siblings also may be “important role agents and models of socialization inside the family. They are family members but can also be peers. We do not choose siblings as friends, but generally there is a frequent communication with each other. Teenagers are exposed to their older siblings’ behaviors and attitudes even when they do not have common activities. That is why older siblings may be the models for younger ones, especially in case the older sibling is a brother or siblings are of the same gender. Same gender siblings may have similar interests, participate in the same kinds of activities, and spend more free time together than opposite gender siblings. An older brother might appear, even for younger sisters, as a more important figure than an older sister. Thus, adolescents with the deviant siblings are more likely to follow deviant behaviors, than are adolescents whose siblings are not deviant” (Ardelt & Day, 2002).
Conclusions
During the period of adolescence, young people are easily influenced by parents and peers. Their actions and decisions greatly depend on their peers’ influence. Both parents and peers may make either positive or negative influence upon the adolescents. It is always said that communication with peers brings mostly bad outcomes. However, many researchers came to conclusion that it is not the case and very often peers show good example to the teenagers. The researchers also admit that parents are more important for adolescents than the peers. Good relations with parents reduce the risk of bad habits acquisition very significantly.
References:
Ardelt, M., & Day, L. (2002). Parents,Siblings,and Peers: Close Social Relationships and Adolescent Deviance. Journal Of Early Adolescence, 22(3), 314-315. Retrieved from http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ardelt/Parents,%20siblings,%20and%20peers.pdf
Buehler, C. (2006). Parents and Peers in Relation to Early Adolescent Problem Behavior. Journal Of Marriage And Family, (68), 122. Retrieved from http://uncg.edu/hdf/facultystaff/Buehler/adolescent%20problems/parents%20and%20peers%20as%20social
Cultural and Societal Influences on Adolescent Development. (2014). Boundless. Retrieved from https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/human-development-14/adolescence-73/cultural-and-societal-influences-on-adolescent-development-285-12820/
Durkin, K. Adolescence and Adulthood. Retrieved from http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/intropsych/pdf/chapter10.pdf
Tomé, G. (2012). How Can Peer Group Influence the Behavior of Adolescents: Explanatory Model. Global Journal Of Health Science, 4(2), 31-32. doi:10.5539/gjhs.v4n2p26
Utting, D. (2007). Parenting and the different ways it can affect children’s lives: research evidence. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.jrf.org.uk/system/files/2132-parenting-literature-reviews.pdf
