Adolescence marks a time of increased focus on peers and peer-relationships,
PEER PRESSURE (definition): When people your own age try to influence how you act….
*It can be positive or negative.
*It can be verbal or non-verbal
*Other teens can be present or absent
Why the reliance on peers and less influence by adults?
1)As pre-adolescents begin you change (MEPS) MENTALLY, EMOTIONANALLY, PHYSICALLY and SEXUALLY. As you begin to mature you begin to think for yourself and question adult standards and the need for parental guidance. This is your first step to eventually gaining independence and becoming an adult.
2)They find it reassuring to turn to their peers for advice, understanding, sympathy and empathy — friends who are in the same position themselves. There is with less fear of being ridiculed or "shot down" by adults who may think their ideas are immature and childish.
3)As they grow older, teens tend to be rewarded more by the attention and approval of their peers than that of their parents or other adults
4)Peers typically replace the family as the center of a young person's socializing and leisure activities. Adolescents spending more than fifty percent of their waking hour with friends
5)During adolescence, parents and adolescents become more physically and psychologically distant from each other. This normal distancing is seen in 1) decreases in emotional closeness and warmth (when was the last time you hugged or kissed your parents), 2)increases in parent-adolescent conflict and disagreement.
6)Increases in family strains (economic pressures, divorce, etc.) have prompted teenagers to depend more on peers for emotional support. In the high school years, most teenagers report feeling closer to friends than parents. Stress caused by work, marital dissatisfaction, family break-up caused by divorce, entering a step-family relationship, lower family income or increasing expenses, all produce increased individual and family stress.
7)There has been an increase in part-time employment among youth, but it has had little impact on peer relations.To find time for work, teenagers drop extracurricular activities, reduce time spent on homework, and withdraw from family interactions, but they "protect" time spent with friends.
But it is through the peer group that adolescents are most likely to be introduced to problem behaviors such as drinking, smoking, drug use and delinquency.
SO WHO IS MORE PRONE TO PEER PRESSURE?
1)Younger teens who will do just about anything to feel older and fit in.
2)Kids who don't have a consistent adult presence at home may seek values away from home. When teens don't have parents that are actively involved in their lives, don't provide appropriate supervision, and are unable to clearly communicate their values, they are in danger of succumbing to negative peer pressure.
3)Teens who don’t have a strong self concept and a secure set of values. They are very susceptible to influence by their peers. Why?…because behavior that is rewarded keeps happening.(reinforcement and operant conditioning). If they are rewarded for maladaptive or illegal behavior by their peers, they will tend to do more of those things. If they are rewarded for adaptive and good moral behavior by their peers, they will do more of those things.
4)Teens who are members of a peer group who don’t obey typical norms and values. These teens are more likely to break the rules just to fit in. Example: "One day another teacher and I were talking about these kids, in particular this one boy who had really made some positive changes this year. The response from the teacher explaining the changes in this boy was, 'Look at who he's been hanging around with.'" ????? How many of your parents are concerned with who your friends are, who you spend your time with. ???? If you would take an honest look at those you know you would realize this is true. How many times has a bad kid changed when they started to hand out with the normal kids and visa versa.
5)Teens not involved in school or out of school activities. Kids tuned into school and school activities usually have a more positive outlook and that rubs off on their friends, too,
But in general, most teens conform to peer pressure about relatively minor/harmless things like music (pop vs classical), clothing (A.Eagle vs Kmart) or hairstyles (unkept vs neat boys or girls straight vs big hair). In these instances teens are simply conforming to what is popular.
Teenagers are forced to put up with peer pressure all the time. But peer pressure isn't always negative or even usually obvious stuff they show in TV commercials. ("Wanna try a joint? No? Wussamadda? Chicken?")…..More often, it's hard to even notice, much less resist. It can also occur without your peers being present.
HOW CAN WE TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN + AND – PEER PRESSURE)?
-If it’s positive you are part of a CROWD, if it’s negative you are part of a MOB
The difference between good peer pressure and bad peer pressure can be summed up with a simple comparison - when it is good, you are a member of the crowd; when it is bad, you are part of a mob.
Negative - If peer pressure is telling you
1)to do something without questioning why,
2)to do something you know is wrong, or
3)to do something you feel uncomfortable doing it is negative peeer pressure.
This is the kind of behavior that leads to a "mob mentality", that is when the group is acting as one and no one seems to be thinking about consequences or outcomes.!
Positive-If peer pressure is telling you
1)to act in a generally appropriate way,
2)to do the right thing when you may not otherwise, or
3) to do more good than harm it is positive peer pressure.
As long as following the crowd doesn't cause you to act without consideration, following is not always a bad thing to do. In a situation where peer pressure is good, individuals in the groups will be acting as individual parts of a whole, each working WITH the other.
Studies have also shown that all it takes for someone to stand their ground and go against peer pressure is for one other peer to join them.(just as long as we aren’t alone its OK). That principle holds true for people of any age in peer pressure situations.