Navigating Peer Pressure: Strategies for Adolescents

 

How many times it has happened with you that you have indulged into an activity which has been pressurized by your friend, colleague, classmate or someone that is a mere acquaintance for you. Most of the times these are the activities that we want to say no to but end up doing them as you are being pushed by a more influential person to do the activity. But being the adults, it becomes an essential part of lives to learn to say no. In case of adolescents this learning has not yet occurred as they are still in the phase of acquiring knowledge about the world.

This lack of learning for the adolescents at times leads to taking part in the activities which they do not want to do but eventually end up doing as their peers or their friends are already involved in it. Adolescent age is a crucial time period, where their whole personality is shaped for future. If during this period they do not receive right guidance and helping hands, there is a high chance that they might develop some deviant form of coping mechanisms.

Following are the reasons because of which adolescents indulge into peer pressure:

• Teenagers feel that it is a way of identity formation among their friends or acquaintances. They want their peers to see them as their role models.
•  This age group individual’s want everyone around them to accept them in their desired goals. To gain this acceptance they engage into activities that are not aligned with their likes as they have fear of being rejected.
• Adolescent years are very crucial time periods, where they are insecure about their appearances, intelligence levels or social and economic status. These factors indirectly affect the self-esteem of the individual.
• This is a very confusing age group where the individuals are not entirely independent but they want to take decision own their now. This is where conflict arises between parents and their children.

Above mentioned reasons are just the common ones that could be easily noticed in the adolescents. But there are other factors which might be unique from person to person. For some adolescents it could be any past experience or learning which have made them do things under peer pressure.

This age group is sensitive to being influenced by the people who they either want to impress or accept. Then it becomes necessary on the part of the parents or caregivers to observe when their children are being swayed away due to the pressure they are feeling. Punishment or any other harsh way of communicating parent’s disagreement could lead to negative reaction of their children.  It is important to have empathy and understanding the intricacies of this age group.

Following a few ways we at Bright Side of Life try to work on to have smoother growing process for teenagers:

• Help children to understand the importance of saying “NO”. Until children learn as individuals how to tackle the any uncomfortable situation, the ability to refuse or say no can help work out through peer pressure.
• Educate children to be mindful of their body language. Saying no and depicting a body language of agree for the act, can create situations where the adolescent ends up doing the pressured task. Best thing would be just walking away so that they don’t end up doing the task.
• Teach children how to be diplomatic or how they could offer alternatives for the pressured situations. This could help them get out of the situations without having the fear of being boxed as an uncool person.
• Instill values in them so strong that they do not get easily influenced by anyone around them.
• Adolescents learn quite a lot of things by just observing, create an atmosphere where they see and learn things. Give examples or create situations from where they learn and adapt those things in their own lives.
• Make them practice uncomfortable situations or instances where they could feel pressurized by their peers. This can help them to be prepared when that kind of situation actually occurs.
• If adolescents feel that they cannot find a way out of such situation, tell them to put blame on their parents so that they could comfortably walk out of the situation.

At Bright Side of Life, we understand that how difficult this transition period could for these young minds. With proper guidance they can achieve the heights which are they desire.