Teens and Peer Pressure

Introduction

Peer pressure among teenagers can be defined as the influence of peers on the perception and actions of individuals. Peer pressure may yield negative or positive consequences. Peer pressure becomes negative when peers influence teenagers to perform a negative action.

Peer pressure is very common in teenagers. There are many cause and effects of peer pressure in teenagers. The causes include fear of being used by others, desire to fit in and be cool. The effects of these causes are that the teens feel insecure about them self and lose some of their identity. Other effects are that the teenagers will do anything under pressure, and they keep changing. Also, peers influence each other, and that creates an indirect way for peer pressure. Teenagers make diverse choices when dealing with peer pressure. These choices have a large influence on the future of teenagers (Tarshis, pp. 2).

Discussion

Peer pressure often develops a fear among teenagers. Teenagers often develop the fear that others will use them or take their advantage. The victims of peer pressure are mostly those teenagers who are not confident. The victims of peer pressure believe that they will be penalized if they do not follow their peers. It is because of this fear that teenagers engage themselves in certain negative actions. Due to this fear, they feel that it is better to follow their peers rather than become threatened by the fear of being used. Initiation is something very frightening for new students. Initiation ceremony is common when students join a school (WRA, pp. 01).

For teenagers, it is difficult to find and join a group of their choice. In order to be a part of a group, they start to follow the norms of that group. In order to transform their personalities according to the group, ...