What research shows about how teenagers resist peer pressure:
- Peer relationships are very important to teens. Peer pressure is a normal aspect in your teens’ lives. They tend to spend more time with their friends.
- It’s vital to know your teens’ friends. Encourage your teenagers to invite friends to their home. As parents, this gives you the opportunity to meet their friends without being intrusive.
- The more parents have talked to their children about different topics such as smoking, drinking, drugs, sex, the less their children are impacted. Studies show that parents have tremendous influence over their teens.
- As teenagers are given constructive choices and allowed to make more decisions, they tend to feel better about themselves. Research shows people tend to thrive when they have five positive comments to every one negative comment.
- Peer pressure is often a powerful force and can be a negative force in your teens’ lives often resulting in experimentation with tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
- Encourage your teen not to belong to ‘the popular’ group.
- Peer pressure can have a negative impact on your teenagers. Being in sports reduces teens’ pregnancies. Studies show female athletes are less likely to get pregnant.
- The more open and available parents are to discuss difficult situations in their teenagers’ lives, the better choices their teens tend to make.
- Teens whose parents are more confident and have genuine friendships tend to be true to themselves.
