Q. What is a Peer Pressure?

Peer Pressure occurs when a peer group exerts direct or indirect pressure to do certain actions. If you’re with friends who are doing something that you typically would not do and they convince you to do what they are doing, that is an example of peer pressure.

Q. What are the effects of peer pressure?

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.

Negative peer pressure can encourage teenagers to participate in negative behaviors and habits, such as stealing, cheating, bullying and skipping class. Negative peer pressure can also decrease self-confidence and lead to poor academic performance, distancing from family members and friends, or an increase in depression and anxiety.

On the other hand peer pressure can have positive effects on teens as well. Positive effects of peer pressure can include pressure to become a leader of a school group, develop leadership qualities, excel academically, participate in extracurricular activities and volunteer for a good cause.

Q. What are the causes of peer pressure?

1. Fear of rejection: This fear of rejection is a powerful reason for pack behavior and the development of peer pressure. Many people in our society are also quite fearful of rejection and are therefore afraid to have their own opinion.

2.Weak personality: Peer pressure is quite effective on people who have not developed a stable personality yet. The weaker the personality, the easier it is for groups to influence individuals to behave in certain ways. Thus, the weaker the personality, the higher the chance that people get affected by peer pressure.

3.Bad parenting: Parents have a huge influence on the mental development of their children. If parents install self-esteem in their children from an early age on, chances are less vulnerable to peer pressure since they may have developed a strong enough character to value their own opinion more than the opinion of others.

4.Mental issues: Mental health issues may also make people vulnerable to peer pressure. If people suffer from mental issues, they may be easy to influence and those people may commit actions or crimes due to peer pressure which they otherwise wouldn’t have committed.

5.Hormonal reasons: Especially for teenagers, there might also be hormonal issues when it comes to peer pressure. The hormone system of teenagers is quite complex and hormone levels change frequently. Thus, this makes teenagers quite vulnerable to peer pressure since their hormones may weaken their ability to judge actions correctly.

Q. What are the solutions to deal with Peer Pressure?

1.Support children to find their passion: Powerful way to protect your kids from the negative effects of peer pressure is to support them in finding their passion.

2.Parents should observe changes in their kids behavior: In order to fight the negative effects of peer pressure, it is also crucial that parents observe their kids behavioral changes. Those changes may indicate that kids are affected by peer pressure.

3.Communicate with your children: It is important for

parents to encourage open communication and help their child prepare for situations of negative peer pressure.

4.Increase of tolerance in our society: It is also crucial that we increase the overall level of tolerance in our society. By doing so, the negative effects of peer pressure may be reduced since more groups of people may act more tolerant towards others and crime related to intolerance could be lowered to a certain extent.

Conclusion: Peer pressure is quite common in our society. Especially for teenagers, peer pressure can be significant danger since it is associated with several adverse consequences.

Therefore, parents should take a close look at how peer pressure may affect the behavior of their children in order to be able to take suitable measures in time if necessary.