How to help teens cope with peer pressure
"Why did you do this?" "Because all my friends did it." This question and answer have been, are and will be very common in homes around the world. It can not be avoided that children sometimes feel influenced by what their environment does, even if they do not even want to do any activity. The pressure of the group affects and for many it is preferable to adapt than to fight to achieve the opposite.
Group pressure nullifies in a way the autonomy of the young boys. Something that in the long run will not allow them to make their own decisions, always adapting to what the rest of the group wants. To ensure that the adolescent is able to maintain his / her free will within this environment, parents can teach how to handle these situations that can be so uncomfortable.
Looking good
The experts of the Nemours Foundation they define the group pressure as the influence that the rest of the people have in the life of each one. Sometimes this happens even without the individual noticing and eventually giving in unconsciously. Many teenagers do not even stop to listen to what they are proposing and they are doing an activity they do not want.
An example is the choice of the activity to be carried out when the group of friends meets. Many teens find themselves drinking alcohol even though they know it is not convenient, simply because they do not want to Stay outside of this circle. And this is where the origin of group pressure is explained: the search for the individual to fall well.
Overcoming the group pressure
For the adolescent it is difficult to be the only one who rejects the group pressure, especially in a stage of changes where feeling displaced can cause serious emotional consequences. But parents must Encourage your children to move by their own beliefs and always choosing according to whether an activity is right or wrong. To do this, we must encourage trust in children from a young age, and reject the search for approval in others.
Parents should encourage their children to seek friends willing to say no" and that they share their ideals. It is very good to have friends with similar values that support every decision made. It is useless to try to fit into a group where the same way of thinking is not shared, this can only lead to an emotional conflict where the young person finds himself doing something he does not want.
It can also happen that the group in which the adolescent has habitually moved has changed its values. Every person evolves throughout their life and not all of them do it in the same way. In these situations, you also have to bet on the "no". Nothing happens if you have to look for a new group of friends with whom the same way of seeing life is compared.
Damián Montero