What can a teen do to avoid peer pressure?

Answer 1

How teens avoid peer pressure:

• In every individuals life there will always be peer pressure of some sort, but, an individual has a right to choose whether their peers are of good character or a bad influence on them and that one individual has control in their life to choose which group of friends they choose to hang out with and lessen the burden of pressure trying to fit in with the wrong crowd. If the group a teen chooses to hang out with is not as popular as one or more other groups so what!
• Peer pressure as I am sure you know is very prevalent in elementary school to high school and it can often be extremely difficult for some students to know how to handle that peer pressure. There were always bullies (going back decades) who picked on certain students, but the good news now is that teachers; parents; the police are forming programs and cracking down on these bullies and this does not just include in the educational system, but also the internet and cell phones. Up until the 1960s (in Canada) if a student was constantly disrupting the class; getting into fights or bullying they were suspended from that school for good and the outcome of such a student became the responsibility of that bully's parents. Teens should be more pro active as far as talking to counselors and teachers at school about setting up a program for students who are bullied and given the tools as to how to stop it and just as important including students in the school who are not bullies and getting them involved. There are some schools in the U.S. and Canada doing this and it is working.
• Consider this .... there are more students that are not bullies and 1% of students that are! If other students ignore someone being bullied then they are enablers and just as much At Fault, so it's time teens that do not bully rallied together to put a stop to bullying. Sometimes a police officer that is engaged in a bullying program for teens will come and speak about bullying and give some good tips on how to prevent being bullied or be threatened in any way.
• Some teachers, parents and the police have stepped in to be more proactive because the suicide rate of teens either being bullied or worried about peer pressure has gone up by a high percentage. This is a waste of a young life and extremely sad and there is no need to consider suicide. Teens should know they are not alone!!! Because teens are going through hormonal changes they often are confused as to where they fit in at school or doubt how valuable as a person they really are and if they are are under extreme peer pressure by one or more students they often hold all their fears inside and begin to feel no one can resolve or understand the problems they are going through and this not true. Teens are not taught that what they are going through is normal (but in a much more dangerous way than decades before) and often both parents work in these modern times and the teens also do not realize that just because life is busy in their household; their parents may work that they have the opportunity to speak to their mother or father if they are hurting in any way from any type of peer pressure. Most parents want to keep their children safe and most parents will do something about it. Adults now realize that it is hard for some teens to 'rat' on a certain bully or group of bullies because they fear they will be in more trouble than if they said nothing. Not true! Tell someone ... parents; Minister/Pastor; school counselor and if any student gets threatening emails from a bully keep them and have the parents print them out and form a complaint with the police so it is on record. Bullies learn their behavior from living in the environment of their own families and often if not backed by a group of others these bullies have no power and have no backbone if a group stands together to face them. Then there are the intellectual bullies who think they know everything and if they don't give the word certain students are unacceptable and are left out or called names. Verbal abuse and physical abuse amongst teens is unacceptable.
• Tips of how to avoid peer pressure: Choose the friends that most suit your personality even though they may not be one of the 'cool crowd.' Form your own group. If you are being pressured and threatened be sure to go to school washrooms with one or more friends than alone as these are places where bullying most likely happens (in deserted areas.) Try to walk home with a friend or a group of friends. If you have no friends to walk home with then set-up with your mother a person you can phone that will pick you up at school and stay inside the school until you know they are there to pick you up. If one or more peers calls you names ignore them! Hold your head high and keep walking by. Eventually these peers will grow weary of the game with you and pick on someone else. Know who you are!!! You may not know everything about yourself yet and what good things are in the future for you, but you do know right from wrong; you know if you are kind and honest person and would never harm another person, not even a student. This is all you need to know at this point and never give these good traits of your personality up for anyone ... not even peers and don't give up on yourself! Again, choose people to be your friends that have the same traits as you do and don't dwell on whether you fit into a popular group of students. If you are ever threatened then again ... tell someone! Don't be afraid of what a bully or peer pressure can do. If school is intolerable for you then discuss this with your parents and be open and honest about it and they will resolve this problem because that is what parenting is about. They may place you in a different school or perhaps home-school you with a tutor. Realize that adults are becoming much more aware of how much peer pressure (including bullying) is going on with teens and how it is affecting teens lives.

NOTE: In Canada (and hopefully in the U.S.) no matter how burdened the teachers are (and often are very burdened with health issues with students; taking care as best they can of some students that act up in class while trying to give these students an education.) However, because two teen suicides happened so close together caused by peer pressure when it was found out these teens who had the peer pressure reported it to their teachers and nothing was done about has changed the laws that indeed, if a teacher is told by a stressed teen from peer pressure they must abide and report it. It is not only the whole of educational system that should be involved, but other students in the school; programs set-up in the school to help bullied teens; parental involvement; stricter laws against bullying; threats, etc., should all mesh together. If this is done then peer pressure of any sort drops by a very large percentage.

Answer 2

A teen can avoid peer pressure by knowing their own values and boundaries, surrounding themselves with friends who support and respect them, being assertive in saying "no" when they're uncomfortable, and seeking help from a trusted adult if they feel overwhelmed.