Peer pressure is the influence on people by their peers. It is the effect on a person who gets encouraged to do something by another person. Peer pressure can be positive and negative. It can affect all age groups, races, and genders. It can be as simple as your classmate asking to copy your homework or as difficult as your friends wanting you to take drugs for the first time.
A lot of peer pressure happens in high school and college, where people are just trying to fit in. As a person gets older they start to depend less on their family and more on their friends when it comes to making decisions.
A person’s place in a social hierarchy, like school, can also affect how susceptible they are to peer pressure. A person is even more vulnerable during their teenage years because they care more about their peers’ opinion. If a person has a friend in high school that does drugs that makes that person more susceptible to drugs because of peer pressure from that friend. As adults people are less vulnerable to peer pressure.
Studies show that the more popular a person is the higher the chance is that they could have risky behavior. This is because they are more aware of how other people felt about them, making them more open to peer pressure. Peer pressure isn’t always bad, it can have good effects on a person. A person can be pressured towards positive behavior, like donating to charities or doing better in school. Peer pressure is widely recognized as an initiation to drugs or alcohol. Not having an adult around while a person was out with their friends makes peer pressure more possible.
There are ways to combat bad peer pressure. You can set social boundaries for yourself or ask yourself “Does this seem right?”. You can also spend time with more people that will respect your decisions. If and when you say “No” you will have to get your point across or the person will keep pestering you.
Peer pressure can be both good and bad but can drastically impact your life. There are easy practices to combat peer pressure. Everyone is vulnerable to it no matter what age, race, or gender.
