It is often noticed by teachers and parents that adolescence is a very complex stage of a person’s development that is accompanied by a variety of clashes in all spheres of a young person’s life. As a phase of life, adolescence is complicated by the fact that it is a transitional period between childhood and adulthood (Csikszentmihalyi, 2015). The young people entering this phase are especially frustrated and confused due to a significant change their bodies and minds undergo.
Adolescence is known to be a period of conflict with family members, educators, and peers. One of the most frequently discussed problems of adolescents is pressure from the side of the peers they constantly experience during this period of life. Peer pressure may cause some negative outcomes for its victims. It may result in aggressive or violent behaviors of the teens, wrongdoings of various degrees, immoral choices, and their consequences. Peer pressure can be minimized or addressed by the adult supervisors such as teachers and parents of adolescents, yet this has to be done in the most delicate way possible as the adolescents’ trust towards adults is highly limited and fragile.
Adolescence as a Stage of Human Development
According to the definition provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), adolescence is the time between the ages of 10 and 19 that is characterized by rapid growth and development and is associated with multiple changes (Adolescent Development, 2015). The period of adolescence can be divided into three main stages which are early (11 to 14 years old), middle (15 to 17), and late (18 to 21) (Stages of Adolescence, 2015). Generally, the transformation children experience during adolescence is of two types – physical and mental.
Physically, the body of a young person quickly matures. The process of maturation includes sexual and physical development – the organs and body parts grow, the processes and secretions start to appear. Since all of these physical changes are new for a young person, mild levels of shock are typical for this period. Namely, it may take teens a while to get used to what is going on to their bodies and accept new feelings.
Apart from the adaptation to the physical changes, the adolescents are to get used to having a new social status since this stage of maturation brings the young people closer to adulthood and responsibilities related to it. Overall, adolescents are expected to gain more independence and privacy since they start to develop new interests and roles.
The list of physical and emotional transformations happening to the young people during adolescence is universal; the processes are the same for all teenagers. At the same time, the age at which adolescence and the developments typical for it start may vary depending on the socio-economic situation. The length and standard characteristics of this period are recognized differently in various cultures.
Generally, the human society has changed its perspective on adolescence many times over the last hundred years (for example, the socially accepted age for marriage and childbirth has changed, economic status of different countries allowed earlier onset of puberty, urbanization, and globalization led to the shift of values and gender roles, sexual revolution caused the development of new perspectives on sexuality).
Psychological Side of Adolescence
As a period of rapid transformations and role transitions, adolescence causes a lot of frustration to young people. Moving from childhood to adulthood, teens start to obtain new roles that often create psychological pressure on adolescents. The young people feel like they need to act like grown-ups, yet they still have a set of habitual behaviors they carry from childhood. Feeling lost and confused, the teens tend to start actively looking for their place in the world and in the society around them. Typically, adolescents experience a very strong desire to belong to a particular group or peers. Becoming a member of some community is one of the most important goals of any adolescent individual.
This aspect is especially dangerous because it is associated with peer pressure. The power of peer pressure in the groups of adolescents is extremely influential. Desperate to fit in, teenagers are often ready to do anything that would make them acceptable for their peer group. As a result, peer pressure among adolescents becomes the source of all negative, harmful, and immoral behaviors such as the consumption of drugs and alcohol, early sexual experiences, criminal activities, risky and dangerous experiments (Peer Influence and Peer Pressure, 2015).
The danger of peer pressure is in the fact that it is very hard to address or impact from the side of adults due to their limited authority. This is why the phenomenon and mechanisms of peer pressure among adolescents are carefully studied to provide teachers and parents with tools helping them to minimize peer pressure and secure the children from a variety of potentially harmful errors.
How Does Peer Pressure Work?
The power of peer pressure is so strong because it has several sources. Typically, young people may be pressured to do certain things due to such factors as fear of being isolated from the group, or fear of being considered inadequate; besides, many teenagers are pressured by shame and the need to the bond that occurs on the instinctual level (Teens & Peer Pressure, n. d.). In other words, the motivators forcing the teens to follow a group of peers are rather influential and affect such important values for teenagers as approval, belongingness, bond with peers, and acceptance. The adolescents tend to avoid isolation as the state opposite to being popular at any cost.
It would be pointless to try to convince a teenager to stop being so concerned with what their peers think. For the people of this age, life becomes much easier and more pleasant when they fit in, whereas life in isolation is unbearable since it is associated with not having a place in the world. As a result, doing what everyone is doing is often the main orientation of all adolescents.
Teens are in the process of adjusting to their new bodies and feelings, they may have difficulties controlling impulses. As a result, in situations where they are pressured to react quickly and do not have time to think, teens tend to make mistakes and follow the wrong impulse (Peer Pressure: Its Influence on Teens and Decision Making, 2008). Often, if they had more time to make up their mind, they would be drawn to the opposite solutions.
While adult society sees a variety of different sides of peer pressure and the beliefs of the youth, adolescents have a much simpler idea of this problem. For them, the issue only has two ways out – the miserable life of an alienated person, or a happy life full of acceptance and belongingness of an individual who is a part of a group. At the same time, young people are not as involved in the analysis of what they are doing and the motivations behind it. In most cases, adolescents may be simply unaware of peer pressure and take the situation for granted.
Adolescents and Relationships with Family and Peers
The higher level of emotional and sexual maturity brings the young people closer with their peers and, at the same time, makes them more vulnerable to the harm and pain the peer groups may cause. The strong need to fit in and become a part of a peer society makes adolescents adjust their behaviors, appearance, speech, and even interests. This change may happen rapidly and drastically. Such a dramatic change in a child is likely to alarm their family. Seeing a teenager dressing, talking, and acting in a completely new way will lead to concerns among parents and other older relatives, who may immediately characterize the change as negative or dangerous for the child.
Yet, it is important to remember privacy and independence are new values in the life of a young person. The most common mistake of the parents is viewing an adolescent as a child. Typically, parents become shocked by the new behaviors of their offspring, especially when a child who they used to know as affectionate and dependent becomes locked up, silent, and hypersensitive about their privacy. It may be hard for the parents to cope with the fact that peers’ opinions and advice become more valuable for adolescents than those of family members (Oswalt, 2015).
In times of crisis, adolescents have the need to turn to each other instead of asking their parents for help. This way, a young person without friends or a group of peers they can rely on starts to feel lonely, left out, and unsupported. Such loneliness and lack of sense of belongingness lead to depressions among teens. The parents’ attempts to break through to them and deliver help forcibly leads to an open confrontation with a young person. As a result, an adolescent may completely shut out their family.
Negative and Positive Sides of Peer Pressure
Traditionally, peer pressure is viewed as a negative impact that results in a variety of harmful outcomes. Among them, there are alcohol and substance abuse, drunk driving, risky and dangerous behaviors, crime, violence, and early sexual activities among adolescents. Besides, peer pressure is what makes the central place in the social life of a young person, thus replacing family (Peer Pressure, n. d.).
Logically, all the risky and harmful activities such as multiple sexual relations, criminal and violent behaviors, substance abuse may result in serious harm to a young person’s health and emotionality (from undesired pregnancies and STDs to imprisonments and chemical dependencies). Peer pressure is studied as a serious impact able to shift the behavior and values of the young people basically turning them upside down and making the adolescents slaves of their peer societies.
Apart from negative outcomes, peer influence can impact the youth in a number of positive ways. For example, peer influence may inspire teens to improve their academic performance or become more creative. Young peers are not always violent and harsh with each other, in many cases, they can be supportive and stimulate one another to pursue development and new interests (Peer Pressure, 2012). Often, to become a part of a group, teenagers start to go into sports, join bands, or dance crews. This way, peer relationships should not always be associated with dangerous behaviors and harmful habits.
Two Levels of Peer Pressure
Peer pressure may be divided into two main levels based on its character. The peer pressure of the first level is created by large groups of individuals (Peer Pressure, n. d.). This kind of pressure is visible to the side observers such as parents and teachers. Some of its main signs are the changes in the behavior patterns of young people, their attitudes towards adults, their dressing style, and taste in music or movies. Typically, this level of pressure is the one that attracts the attention of the adult supervisors and is carefully monitored as a harmful impact. Large groups of teens are often suspected to be involved in various criminal activities or immoral behaviors, they are also deemed dangerous.
The peer pressure of the second level is much less noticeable because it occurs in small groups of close friends (2-4 people) (Peer Pressure, n. d.). The pressure of this kind may remain unnoticed for years. It is subtle for the eye of a side observer, yet it is often much more powerful than the pressure on the first level created by large groups of teens. The difference between the two types of pressure is in the fact that the peer pressure of the first level is facilitated by generally accepted social behaviors in large groups of young people.
Such norms may be vague or weak since society if inhomogeneous. At the same time, peer pressure on the second level that appears in the groups of close friends is much stronger. In such circumstances, the teens are pressured by the individuals whose opinions matter the most. When an adolescent is emotionally vulnerable with a friend or two, these friends tend to have the most powerful impact. This way, the tendencies and habits of large crowd teen associates themselves with are less influential than the behaviors typical for small groups of friends.
Handling Peer Pressure
Even though overcoming peer pressure for adolescents is impossible, there are tips for young people to avoid being forced into doing dangerous and immoral things.
First of all, a teen needs to be able to recognize unsafe situations leading to the potential danger to be able to get out of them in time. Secondly, the teens are recommended to learn how to firmly say no to the pressure to do things that do not feel good or right. The moral upbringing of adolescents plays an important role at this stage. To help their children to resist peer pressure, the parents are to nurture their children’s self-esteem and ability to see what is and what is not an appropriate behavior (Guzman, 2007). Thirdly, people who create pressure are to be avoided. It helps if a teen has at least one friend to support them and oppose the pressure together (Peer Pressure, 2012).
Conclusion
Adults often perceive teenagers as the carriers of homogeneous culture with standards of behavior and other common characteristics, but this point of view is inaccurate (Guzman, 2007). The relationships between adolescent peers are complex and have multiple layers. Peer influence may be both negative and positive. The main challenges of this phenomenon are related to the lack of authority and inability to help from the side of the adults, and to the desire to be accepted by peers from the side of the children. Peer pressure can be powerful, but individuals may resist or avoid it by carefully evaluating the groups and people they are engaged with.
Reference List
Adolescent Development. (2015). Web.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2015). Adolescence. Web.
Guzman, M. R. T. (2007). Friendships, Peer Influence, and Peer Pressure During the Teen Years. Web.
Oswalt, A. (2015). Teens and Peer Relationships. Web.
Peer Influence and Peer Pressure. (2015). Web.
Peer Pressure. (n. d.). Web.
Peer Pressure. (2012). Web.
Peer Pressure: Its Influence on Teens and Decision Making. (2008). Web.
Stages of Adolescence. (2015). Web.
Teens & Peer Pressure. (n. d.). Web.