Listening to their instincts, focusing on their strengths, talking through issues, and learning relaxation exercises, are all examples of different coping strategies that can help manage stress. Teaching teens — and modeling — coping strategies will help them make healthier choices during the stressful and challenging situations that often come with peer pressure. Given the effects that peer pressure can have on adolescents and teens, it’s important for parents to encourage open communication and help their child prepare for situations of negative peer pressure. See seven tips to help teens avoid negative peer pressure and respond in a healthy way. One common social media misrepresentation is when people post the “best” of their lives, creating a false sense of reality.

Learn more about the types and effects of peer pressure and how you can prepare your child to deal with it in a healthy way. Set aside a time where you present your teen with a variety of potential situations. For example, they get to the party and there are no parents present or they are how to deal with peer pressure offered a ride with someone that has been drinking. Give them time to consider your sample situations and ask them how they would respond. Teens should never feel the pressure to say yes when their gut tells them no. Having the ability to say no and mean it might even be lifesaving.

Dealing With Peer Pressure

We know that children who have good relations with their parents feel that they have less of a need to please their friends. So, I’ll give you an example of one set of research findings that we have from work that we have done in Sweden. Passive peer pressure, sometimes called unspoken pressure, may have more influence over behavior than active peer pressure. Unspoken pressure may be harder to resist because it can seem easier to go along with the crowd in order to fit in, especially when there’s no explicit pressure to do something. People who don’t feel pushed into something may have a harder time finding an opportunity to refuse.

The Alcohol Treatment Navigator walks individuals through the process of finding treatment options and recovery resources. Spending time with friends who resist peer pressure or avoid alcohol altogether increases your likelihood of doing the same. Less alcohol consumption could give way to a healthier lifestyle, letting you engage in safe activities alongside loved ones. You avoid the consequences of alcohol, stressful situations and negative influences. To avoid feeling pressured to drink, attend activities that don’t involve alcohol.

What Is Peer Pressure?

Individuals are more likely to give into peer pressure in social settings and are more likely to drink if those around them are. When attending social settings alone, a person’s odds of drinking increase. In social settings, adults can turn to nonalcoholic drinks as an alternative. For example, mixing water and juice in a small glass could give the impression of a mixed alcoholic drink. The report, which evaluated nearly 7,000 children aged 12 to 17, found that children who grew up in a household with both natural parents were less susceptible to pressure from friends. Children raised by a natural parent and a stepparent were just as likely to give in to peer pressure as those in single-parent homes.

It’s possible that a friend who is peer pressuring you simply wants to spend more time with you or connect with you, but they don’t know how else to ask. For instance, you might say something like, “It upsets me when you offer me a cigarette when you know I don’t smoke. I won’t be able to keep hanging out with you if you don’t respect my answer.” When you’re faced with a choice, ask yourself what your reasons are for doing something. If it’s because all of your friends are doing it and you’re afraid they won’t talk to you if you don’t join them, then you may want to reconsider. When you call our team, you will speak to a Recovery Advocate who will answer any questions and perform a pre-assessment to determine your eligibility for treatment. If eligible, we will create a treatment plan tailored to your specific needs.

Examples of Positive Peer Pressure

When teens make a choice that is right for them and stick with it, they learn to express their values. Remind your teens that they are their own people making their own choices. It is up to them (not their friends) to decide what they value.

Direct pressure involves peers explicitly asking you to do something. Indirect pressure happens when you witness others engaging in an activity and are motivated to do the same. Get health tips and parenting advice from Children’s Health experts sent straight to your inbox twice a month. Is an Administrative Director of Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her degrees are in Psychology and Human Development from Middlebury College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Education.

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The Children’s Health pediatric psychiatry and psychology department provides comprehensive services to support children’s and teens’ mental health. If you’re in a situation where you feel threatened, are being hurt, or feel pressured into doing something that you’re really uncomfortable with, you need to get help. Tell a family member, a friend from outside the situation, a teacher or a counsellor. You might feel pressured to have sex if you’re afraid of what your partner or friends will think if you don’t. But sex can be very personal, and you may feel vulnerable afterwards. Have you heard the old joke about the patient who tells the doctor, “Doc, my arm hurts when I do this!

• Being pressured by peers can be a stressful experience, whether it happens in person or online.
• Role modeling good emotional self-regulation may also help your child stick to their own values when it comes to peer pressure.
• Saying “no” becomes difficult in such contexts, even when uncomfortable, since humans innately seek to “belong.”
• Find out what peer pressure is and how to handle it, including what to do if things get serious.
• Resisting peer pressure can involve avoiding it, saying no, and surrounding yourself with more positive influences.