Peer Pressure

What is it?  Who is affected by it?  How does a student deal with it?  How does a parent deal with it? How do school counselors handle it?

It seems that peer pressure is like a right of passage.  It is something that everyone must experience in their lifetime.  Although we experience it in various forms from childhood and into adulthood, I am going to focus on that very awkward time in one's life--Middle School.

The transition from elementary school to middle school can be very frightening. According to the World Health Organization (as cited in Bailey, G., Giles, R., & Rogers, S., 2015), adolescence is only second to infancy in terms of the amount of monumental growth and developmental changes that one goes through.  Middle school is also a time, as stated by Jackson and Davis (as cited in Bailey, G., Giles, R., & Rogers, S., 2015), when students begin to engage in risky behaviors, such as consuming alcohol and illicit drugs and smoking cigarettes.  

According to a study by Bailey, G., Giles, R., & Rogers, S. (2015), females tend to be more concerned than males about various issues, ranging from navigating through the new school to being bullied to attaining academic success to feeling peer pressure by peers to smoke and drink.  Manning and Bucher (as cited in Bailey, G., Giles, R., & Rogers, S. 2015) found that adolescents are more likely to be influenced by their peers during middle school than in high school.  Additionally, females were significantly more concerned about peer pressure than males.

For some more facts and information on peer pressure, go to www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/Facts_for_Families_Pages/Peer_Pressure_104.aspx

Bailey, G., Giles, R.M., & Rogers, S.E. (2015).  An investigation of the concerns of fifth graders         transitioning to middle school.  RMLE Online, 38(5), 1-12.  Retrieved from                                   htttp://search.proquest.com/docview/1661347028:accountid=8289.