2. Peer-pressure is the influence
Peer-pressure is the influence that friends, people and individuals in group are capable of exerting on their peers. Some children are able to brush it off without any issues while it negatively impacts on other children. Sometimes adults underestimate the effects of peer pressure on their children because they were teenagers long ago in a different time. Here are three ways in which peer-pressure can negatively affect children.
First, due to peer pressure, children can easily adopt dangerous habits. They see what their friends do and copy them. For instance, many may develop bad habits such as alcohol consumption, smoking, drug abuse.
Second, children’s academic performance is also affected by their peers. For teenagers, it is important for them to be accepted by their peer group. This means that their peer group’s approval gets placed above that of their parents and teachers. Sometimes their academics are affected because despite being capable of performing well, they choose not to because in the eyes of their peers it makes them look uncool. Sometimes their academics are affected because in an effort to fit in with their peer group, they place more emphasis on being social rather than working on their academics.
Finally, negative peers also make children feel ashamed or bad about themselves and their family. At the average school, students come from various economic backgrounds. If the students come from poor economic backgrounds or come from a family which might not give them money to spend extravagantly, they end up feeling bad or ashamed of themselves and their family, because in the eyes of their peers, they are somehow ‘lesser’ or ‘weird’ individuals. (272 words)
(Adapted from: http://www.theteachersdigest.com/)
