The Extent at Which Peer Group Affect free essay sample

They busy carving a career for themselves. They spend most of their time among those of their age their friends, peers. Teenage is the most youthful period of life. At that age, they are young, enthusiastic, and ready to take life head on and eager to take in every little thing life brings their way. They enjoy the company of others their age, as full of energy as they are. But this age is also the most dangerous. They are susceptible; anything can influence them and make them change, for better or worse the line between the two blurs for a brief period. Its not the kids to blame, its their age.Teenagers are the most likely to fall prey to peer pressure. So, their parents and teachers should save them from succumbing to it. Its natural for a teenaged kid to feel like imitating his friend. Its natural for him to feel like smoking just because his friends do or feel like drinking because his peers do. We will write a custom essay sample on The Extent at Which Peer Group Affect or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Its not abnormal for teenaged kids to adopt all that is considered hip and cool without a second thought. They dont do it deliberately. No. They just cant distinguish between the good and the bad. They need to be taught the difference. They need to be shielded from negative peer pressure.And the solution is not in isolating them from peers. Its in teaching them to make good choices in life. A strong support from family, an ability to differentiate between the right and the wrong and the skill to choose friends from peers is the key to greet the positive effects of peer pressure and keep the negative ones at bay. Your peers, their choices and ways of life give you a glimpse of the world outside the four walls of your house. What they think about things in life, how they perceive situations, how they react in different circumstances can actually expose you to the world around. Being part of a larger group of peers exposes you to the variety in human behavior. This makes you reflect on your behavior and know where you stand. Peer pressure can lead you to make right choices in life. Peer pressure forces you to do things you are not comfortable doing. It can even lead you to adopt a certain kind of lifestyle, even if you dont really want to. You may not like partying every weekend, you may not be smoking. But peer pressure is powerful. It can turn you from an always-at-home boy/girl to a complete party animal. It can turn you from a total non-smoker to a chain-smoker.There are so many teenagers who take to drinking against their will, just because their peers force them to. In many cases, peer pressure has been the culprit in creating drug addicts. At that vulnerable age, teenagers do not understand that they are actually ruining their life by giving in to pressure from peers. Background of the Study Peer groups are an important influence throughout ones life, but they are more critical during the developmental years of childhood and adolescence. There is often controversy about the influence of a peer group versus parental influence, particularly during adolescence. Recent studies show that parents continue to have significant influence, even during adolescence, a reassuring finding for many parents. It appears that the power of the peer group becomes more important when the family relationships are not close or supportive. For example, if the parents work extra jobs and are largely unavailable, their children may turn to their peer group for emotional support. This also occurs when the conflict between parents and children during adolescence, or at any time during a childs development, becomes so great that the child feels pushed away and seeks closeness elsewhere.Most children and adolescents in this situation are not discriminating about the kind of group they join. They will often turn to a group simply because that group accepts them, even if the group is involved in illegal or negative activities. Gang involvement, for example, is a common form of organized—often antisocial—peer interaction. Gangs may be based on ethnicity, sex, and/or common activity. Most youths who join gangs come from families where drug and alcohol use, financial burdens, and broken relationships are common.