Coping with Peer Pressure Essay -- Peer Pressure Essays

Adolescence is a time when matess play an increasingly important role in the lives of younker. Teens lead astray to develop friendships that are more intimate, exclusive, and more constant than in earlier years. In many ways, these friendships are an essential component of development. They provide safe venues where youth can explore their identities, where they can feel accepted and where they can develop a sense of belongingness. Friendships also allow youth to practice and foster cordial skills necessary for future success.Nonetheless, parents and other adults can become concerned when they see their teens becoming preoccupied with their friends. Many parents worry that their teens might fall under cast out peer influence or reject their families values and beliefs, as well as be pressured to engage in high-risk and other prejudicial behaviors.In actuality, peer influence is more complex than our stereotype of the negative influences from friends. First, peer influence can b e both positive and negative. While we tend to find that peer influence leads teens to engage in unhealthy and unsafe behaviors, it can actually motivate youth to study harder in school, volunteer for community and favorable services, and participate in sports and other productive endeavors. In fact, most teens report that their peers pressure them not to engage in drug use and sexual activity.Second, peer influence is not a simple process where youth are passive recipients of influence from others. In fact, peers who become friends tend to already have a lot of things in common. Peers with similar interests, similar academic standing, and enjoy doing the same things tend to gravitate towards each other. So while it seems that teens and their friends become ve... ...relationships, and deflect negative peer pressures and influences.Selected ReferencesBrown, B. B. (2004). Adolescents relationships with peers. In R. M. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of Adolescent Psychology, 2nd edition (pp. 363-394). New York Wiley.Brown, B. B. (1990). Peer groups and peer cultures. In S. S. Feldman & G. R. Elliott (Eds). At the threshold The developing adolescent (pp. 171-198). Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.Brown, B. B. & Klute, C. (2006). Friendships, cliques, and crowds. In G. R. Adams & M. D. Berzonsky (Eds.). Blackwell Handbook of Adolescence (pp. 330-348). Malden, MA Blackwell Publishing.Steinberg, L. (2005). Adolescence. New York, NY McGraw-Hill.AcknowledgmentThis publication is partly based on NebFact 211, Adolescence and Peer Pressure by Herbert G. Lingren, Extension Family Specialist.