Peer Pressure Is Always Negative

Peer pressure is whatever type of influence, positive or negative, that comes from a peer group. This peer group may be of similar age (eastward.yard., children in the aforementioned classroom) but tin can as well be defined by other commonalities, including motherhood, professional affiliations, and your local neighborhood. Peer pressure occurs throughout the lifespan, but learning to cope by building self-conviction and surrounding yourself with positive influences may assistance prevent problems with peer pressure level from arising afterward.

This commodity will explain what peer pressure looks like in young adults and teens and how it tin affect adults.

Girl feeling peer pressured — skynesher / Getty Images

Statistics About Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is more than someone request y'all to try drugs or potable booze. The following were listed as the summit pressures experienced by teens aged 13 to 17 in ane study:

Bookish achievement (61% responded they feel pressure to go strong grades)
Looking a certain way (29% felt pressure to wait "skillful")
Fit into social peer groups (28% )
Be more involved in extracurriculars and be good at athletics (21%)
Drug and alcohol use (4 and 6%, respectively)

Young Adults and Teens

Young adults and teens face similar peer pressure level, but gender tin can touch on how these pressures are internalized and expressed. For instance, of the 29% of teens who responded they felt peer force per unit area to look "proficient," girls were more likely than boys to say they feel a lot of pressure to look practiced (35% vs. 23%).

It Can Affect Adults Too

Adults are not exempt from facing societal expectations and peer judgment or influence. For case, you lot may deport the pressure level of academic achievement into your career. Y'all may also face challenges like wanting to "keep up with the Jones'" and feel pressure level to buy items yous cannot afford to maintain an image that fits into your piece of work, social, or neighborhood environment.

Examples and Types of Peer Pressure level

Y'all can feel peer pressure level from people without them saying anything to you lot, and you lot tin can experience information technology from direct remarks made by others.

Implicit peer force per unit area is the subtle type that pulls you into conforming to a social group to increment your chances of acceptance. For example, seeing other people who are considered "cool" drinking at a political party.

We hear much more about explicit peer pressure, as it is easier to detect and recognize as problematic. Information technology sounds like someone telling you to finish worrying, kickoff having fun and exist part of the group by participating in something you lot don't feel comfy with. Information technology may also be a threat, such every bit, "You can't hang out with us if you're not going to drinkable."

Is Peer Pressure Ever Negative?

Peer pressure is not e'er negative. Trying to fit into a healthy social grouping, for example, of peers getting skilful grades, joining sports teams, and making plans for their futures, is positive. Some refer to this blazon of peer "pressure" as peer "influence."

According to Brett Laursen, Ph.D., a boyfriend of the American Psychological Association whose work focuses on the outcome of children's interactions with peers and parents, peer influence tin can occur anytime one peer is more "influential" than the other.

Benefits of Peer Influence

Peer influence tin show you at that place is back up, encouragement, and customs available to you. Past seeing someone else do something positive, fifty-fifty if it'due south challenging, yous may reflect on your own life choices, goals, and where you lot spend your time.

Examples of positive peer influence include:

Joining an extracurricular action or trying a new hobby
Challenging and not participating in gossip
Fugitive drugs and alcohol
Working to save money for college
Going to therapy (solo or couples)
Making a career change

Why Young People Are More Susceptible

Immature people may exist more than susceptible to peer pressure because their identities are nonetheless forming; they desire to fit in and not be bullied and have less risk disfavor than adults.

In addition, a combination of other historic period-related and developmental factors contribute to youth'south increased susceptibility to peer force per unit area:

They may be less balky to hazard, loss, and punishment
They may exist more vulnerable to the effects of reward
They favor firsthand over delayed prospects

Risks

The risks associated with peer pressure may not be immediately obvious or seem similar cautionary tales, but they are serious and can take life-altering consequences.

Substance Abuse

Peer force per unit area to use substances like booze and cannabis can unfold into problems with substance abuse.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), teen substance utilise affects brain evolution and tin contribute to adult health problems, including middle disease, high claret pressure, and slumber disorders.

In Sexual Situations

Peer pressure level can lead a person to engage in sex before they are ready. It may besides influence the person to participate in unsafe, risky, or unsafe sexual activities. The consequences may include being exposed to a sexually transmitted infection (STI), developing pregnancy, or having images of yourself posted online without consent.

Mental Health

Being pressured past peers can be a stressful experience, whether it happens in person or online. It may shake your sense of identity and cocky-confidence and may contribute to excessive worry. In addition, prolonged exposure to this type of stress and tension may be a gene in mental health concerns such every bit anxiety and depression.

Rising To a higher place Peer Pressure

Ascension higher up peer pressure means not giving into the pull of others to act in a certain way. No matter your age, y'all can practice not giving into negative peer force per unit area and work on surrounding yourself with more positive influences.

Some ways of coping with peer pressure include:

Non spending fourth dimension with people who pressure you to do things that experience wrong or unsafe.
Having difficult conversations, learning to say "no," and practicing leaving situations that feel unsafe or uncomfortable. This may include calling a parent or spouse for support.
Befriending people who resist negative peer pressure and/or who accept a positive influence.
Talking to a trusted peer or professional (teacher, counselor) if you have problems proverb "no" or are feeling pressured to change something nearly yourself.

Summary

Peer force per unit area is nearly the influence of others. It can be implicit or explicit, positive or negative. When the pressure is positive, encouraging yous to become a meliorate version of yourself, it may be referred to equally peer "influence." While peer influence can improve your life, peer pressure can cause problems. For case, you may experience pressure to exercise unsafe things that have risks y'all may not fully know. Resisting peer pressure can involve avoiding it, saying no, and surrounding yourself with more positive influences.

A Word From Verywell

Peer pressure is a part of life, but that doesn't mean you demand to exist negatively influenced by it. If yous're feeling pressured to do things that may make you experience bad near yourself, consider talking to a trusted person for back up. Recognizing when peer pressure is negative and potentially harmful versus when it is positive, and potentially life-enhancing tin can help you make healthy choices about who yous permit into your inner circle. If y'all have made poor choices in the past due to peer pressure level, forgive yourself with the intention to exercise improve adjacent time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What helps with conviction when fugitive social pressure?

Knowing your personal values, the difference between right and incorrect, and that you accept back up from positive influences may help with conviction when avoiding social pressure. Sometimes yous may not experience confident in saying no, but the more than y'all practice your personal boundaries, the easier information technology should get.
Does peer pressure make you a pushover?

No, peer pressure does non make you a pushover. Peer pressure is difficult to avoid, and giving into it simply means you may need to reassess your values and whether or not you lot have the right kind of support in your life. Shaming yourself or identifying with the pushover function only serves to farther interruption downward confidence that may leave you more vulnerable to negative peer pressure.
How does peer pressure affect us on a societal level?

Peer force per unit area affects us on a societal level because it can set into motility a series of negative experiences and consequences that alter a person's story. If a person continues to follow the lead of negative influences, they may be put on a path toward consequences such as substance abuse and risky sexual situations (both of which may take life-altering consequences).
When does peer force per unit area at school start?

Peer pressure level doesn't all of a sudden appear at a certain age. Peer pressure transcends historic period groups and can brainstorm before the first 24-hour interval of schoolhouse at daycare, playgroup, and more. Once a child begins seeing themselves as a part of a community, the desire to fit in may occur for amend or worse.

Verywell Health uses but loftier-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our manufactures. Read our editorial process to learn more near how nosotros fact-cheque and proceed our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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By Michelle Pugle
Michelle Pugle, BA, MA, is an proficient health author with near a decade of contributing accurate and accessible health news and information to authority websites and print magazines. Her piece of work focuses on lifestyle management, chronic illness, and mental health. Michelle is the author of Ana, Mia & Me: A Memoir From an Anorexic Teen Heed.

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