Peer Pressure: It's Not All Bad
By Teresa Ambord
Peer pressure gets a bad rap. When we think of peer pressure, we usually think of influences that lead our otherwise-good kids to take up things like drinking, smoking, drugs, and promiscuity. But just like on the evening news, where bad news gets over-reported and good news is often overlooked, the same is true for positive peer pressure.
Value Testing
Peer pressure can influence kids to take up bad habits and attitudes, but peers can and do also serve as positive role models for each other. They listen to and accept each other and understand teenage concerns often better than parents can.
Teenagers are searching for their own values and pulling away from their parents. That's a good and necessary part of the maturing process. While they are seeking their own set of values, they are testing them on a group of people who are in the same stage of life they are in, that is, their peers. And that's not all bad. The story below shows how teens influence each other for good.
Volkswagen Capitalizes on Peer Pressure
In September 2003, Volkswagen used the power of positive teen peer pressure to try to accomplish something adults had been unable to do. What was their goal? To slow the rate of traffic deaths, which is about 5,000 young people each year, by having teens encourage other teens to wear seat belts.
An unofficial survey among high school students showed that the primary reason teenagers don't wear seat belts is because they consider them "uncool." Volkswagen responded by sponsoring a contest for kids to come up with 30-second seat belt commercials aimed at convincing other kids to buckle up.
"We believe the most effective messenger for a teenager is another teenager," said Frank Maguire, vice president of sales and marketing for Volkswagen of America, Inc. "The statistics of teenagers involved in fatal car crashes is shocking. It is a national health problem that could be alleviated if teens thought it was hip, and actually important to their health and safety, to wear a seat belt. That is the primary purpose of this project."
Read the whole Volkswagen story and view some of the commercials:
Transition
Part of the reason that peer pressure, positive or negative, is so influential for teenagers is that they are in a constant state of flux. Transition is a hallmark of the teen years. Kids are in a series of transitions all the time, changing schools, changing teachers, changing classes, changing friends, surviving puberty, or even drastic alterations in their home lives, like divorce and/or remarriage of their parents. And while all this transition is taking place, they are coincidentally on the threshold between childhood and adulthood.
Parents can help smooth the transitions without being intrusive. Here are a few ways:
- By setting good examples, such as safe driving, not smoking, and not overindulging in alcohol.
- By parents saying "no" to their adult friends when they need to, so their kids see that it's okay to say no, and that saying no does not drive away real friends.
- By talking in advance about what real friendship means.
- By encouraging hobbies, interests, and activities for their teens that build self-esteem. Strong self-esteem will make it easier to resist negative pressure.