One one the strongest force that influence the choice of teens growing up is peer pressure. This is also the reason why so many mistakes are made during this period and exceptional mile stone can be attainable if this period is effectively utilized. From the teenage period to the youthful phase, people tend to be more expressive and want to be noticed.
The influence comes when you do something because you want to be accepted and valued by your friends, which you may not have done due to your family background. To achieve a good life, one must strike a balance between fitting into the peer pressure group and being yourself. This is because the effect of peer pressure can be positive or negative.
Ways Peer Pressure Influences Our Choices
We can observe negative peer influence in the following ways;
Indecent Dressing
The most common way we get influenced by peer pressure is in the way we dress. Oftentimes people that dress so religiously will travel to school and change their mode of dress just because they are no longer where their people would see them. The easiest examples is ladies that cannot wear trousers, short and revealing clothes at home but when in school they become models.
A good number of times, it is always against the persons choice or religious believe . So it is important to weigh whatever idea or pressure from your friends before you implement them.
Party life
Peer pressure can make non party type of people to start partying. This is not a new thing, greater percentage of olosho in Nigeria all started going to party because of peer pressure. Just as mike would confess, I started clubbing when I was 15, I didn't want to but all my friends were all clubbing and I didn't want to be left out of the group. Since I started, I has been difficult to start even when I cut them all off. It has been so difficult for me and so judging because the kind of family I come from seriously frown at that.
This is just one of the many stories out there that is caused by peer pressure influence. Most times, this guys engage in violent or life threatening activities in the club.
Drug Abuse
Doing drugs is a common lifestyle seen among children and adults. Research suggests that teens have great influence on one another and often have a higher probability of taking risk in group than individually. This simple means that one one of them has the desire to test a drug or smoke, he will make sure he talks others into doing the same thing he is about to do.
Nigeria, hard drugs such as on colos, mkpuru mmiri has become the other of the day among youths. This hard drugs keep wasting innocent people on daily basis, all because of bad influence from friends.
Poor Academic Choices
Peer pressure can influence the course of study we choose, study habits we adapt, carrier paths and how seriously we take our academics. Studies have correlated poor academic achievement among students and peer pressure. This is to say that when students are under a positive influence, they perform well but skip classes which eventually leads to poor results when entangled with negative peers.
As parents, it is good to pay more attention to the kind of life your children live in school, the kind of friends they keep in order to prevent rustication from school or poor academic performance.
Relationship Choice
Mostly, our choices of romantic relationships, partner choices often come from pressure from friends. A lot of people engage in romantic relationships just because their friends are into one and not necessarily because they are of age. So many of this pressured relationships have lead to unwanted pregnancies and increased body counts.
It is good that individuals should navigate through this influences while staying true to their own desires and individual values. To successfully overcome this pressure, one needs proper communication and set boundaries in order to maintain good relationships.
Decision Making
Decision making among teens can be greatly impacted as they may feel to comform to the expectations or influence of their peers. This pressure tends to sway choice in so many areas of life ranging from carrier, relationships, fashion and personal behaviors. Before you make decisions if you notice you are being influenced, you should remember your background, personal values and possibly seek opinion from people you share the same value with.
Conclusion
Understanding that peer pressure can affect anybody if unchecked can help us navigate social dynamics more consciously and carefully. Thereby shaping our identities based on our individual values, aspirations and good morals.
Parents have a big role to play in making sure that their children gets the best moral values and run with them in their day to day life. Also parents should be able to notice changes when their children are being influenced negatively and correct them.