Peer Pressure: What Is It and How to Deal With It?
What is peer pressure?
Each person has peers. Peers are buddies of a comparable age who share similar interests and experiences. Peers can also be other children your age who participate in the same activities as you or who are members of the same community or group as you. You may not consider all of your peers to be friends, yet they all have the ability to affect you.
Peer pressure can be beneficial or detrimental. Positive peer pressure motivates you to perform at your best. Negative peer pressure occurs when a friend or member of a group to which you belong convinces you that you must do something to be accepted. When we hear the term peer pressure, we typically think of negative peer pressure. When you succumb to negative peer pressure, you frequently feel guilty or dissatisfied with yourself for behaving against your ideas or principles.
Examples of negative peer pressure are: needing to dress or act a certain way, cheating or copying someone else’s work or letting others copy your work, not including certain people in social activities, taking dangerous risks when driving, using drugs or alcohol, and engaging in bullying or cyberbullying.
How can one resist destructive peer pressure? Read the tips below from a reliable adolescent counselor :
Tip 1. Pay close attention to your internal experiences. Things are probably not as they seem if they don’t sit quite right with you. If you’re not comfortable with the scenario, you shouldn’t pretend that everyone else is.
Tip 2. Tell the person to quit being so pushy by explaining how you feel about it.
Tip 3. Plan ahead. Consider how you will react in various situations. Consider what you can
Tip 4. Hang out with people who share your worldview. Saying “no” is easier if you have a partner to say it with you. Together, you can say “no” in a way that is less difficult for both of you.
Tip 5. Seek the advice of a responsible adult, such as a parent, teacher, or guidance counselor. A responsible adult is there to hear you out and offer advice on how to proceed.
If you are a parent in the Sherman Oaks, CA area and see that your adolescent child is suffering from peer pressure, then you can turn to Adrien Survol Rivin PSYD, an adolescent counselor, for help. Call me (818) 784-7107 today.