There may be positive and negative effects to peer pressure. If good grades are an influence to you and your friends that is positive peer pressure. On the other hand if the group thinks that it is cool to steal and you steal to fit i

Your peers influence your values. As you grow older you try to discover values and opinions that that are meaningful to you. For instance if your friends think good grades are important they may reinforce the idea for you, but if they think that studying is not necessary you might let your grades drop in order to fit in with them. Another example is community service. If you never considered volunteering before and your friends think it is a good thing to do you might feel inclined to participate. In this sense your peers are influencing your values in a positive way. 2It is important to recognize when pressure from your friends becomes negative. At that point you must decide what values are important regardless of what your friends think. Your peers become very important when it comes to shaping the adolescent life. It is normal to be influenced by your social groups but it is also important to become strong enough to resist negative peer pressure. One reason teenagers may give into negative peer pressure is because they lack a sense of family unity. There may be one parent in the household trying to raise four siblings by her/himself. If a teenager is not happy with his or her parents than they are more likely to find seek negative influences to replace the lack of love or approval in their household. In order to prevent these happenings a parent should spend as much time with their children doing things they enjoy. Help the children develop a positive self-image, praise them for their accomplishments and encourage achievement, give them responsibilities that show you trust them, and help them find solutions to everyday problems they may face.

There are many programs and peer groups that can help students as well as adults cope with peer pressure. SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) is comprised of group of students that teach their fellow students how to make positive and healthy decisions in their life. DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is another program that helps students resist the temptation of peer pressure. This program is straightforward. This program tries to teach students what being adult really is by not giving into peer pressure and coping with everyday problems in a positive way. It is difficult to cope with the every day temptations that surround you. Whether at work, school, or even a walk to the corner store. To resist these temptations we must all have inner strength. We must walk tall and not be afraid. We must know how to say no to negative and unhealthy peer pressure. Before we can respect anyone we must learn how to respect ourselves and following the negative temptations of your peers shows a lack of respect for yourself.

Teens are pressured to keep a cool image, pressured to act dress and talk a certain way. This becomes dangerous when mixed with violence, drugs, sex, and disease, which is all a part of the teens' life today. The worst part of peer pressure is not being able to speak about it and coping with it on your own. For many teenagers this can lead to suicide. The pressure of wanting to fit in and hanging out with the popular crowd is a desire for a teen. And not being able to achieve that need is hard to cope with for some rather then others. But it may be that they do not really want to kill themselves rather, they just want to get away from the pain built by their peers.

Alcoholism is a factor of peer pressure. For some adults drinking is a way of escaping family problems, pressure at work, or even the pressure to fit in with your friends. For many fraternities and sororities drinking is a larger part of their life. For many students this is an open door to alcoholism. While many students get over it some do not. We have to ask the question "from what do these students seek escape". Some might seek escape from their studies while the majority is escaping the burden of not fitting in. For many students the important reason for drinking is to get drunk. 5Many studen

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Approximate Word count = 2675
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)