The Influence Of Peers On Adolescent Development

A teenagers risk taking is a crucial part of their brains development and can significantly benefit their growth as a person. Recent test have shown that in social situations, teenagers are more likely to take risks. In the article, Beautiful Brains, the author, David Dobbs, discussed a study in which teenagers played a game alone, then with people in the room. “When teens drive the course alone, in what Steinberg calls the emotionally ‘cool’ situation of an empty room, they take risks at the same rates that adults do.” (Pbs.org) This shows that teenagers are capable of making good decisions and taking the same amount of risks as a developed adult. So many parents assume that they take unnecessary risk, when really, the teenager knows exactly

You're peers are the people who spends the most time with you on a daily basis, no matter at school or during work, thus their acts influence your behavior. Many teenagers have considered peer pressure the“ price of being a loyal membership” but a lot of times peer pressure is linked to a variety of problems such as risk taking. The risks I'm talking about is mostly related to drugs and illicit actions. Lot of times teenagers understand the risk of drug taking but still consists of doing so because peer pressure helps them overcome this mind set. According to Daily mail UK, a survey was done and the result of one third of high school students admit peer pressure having a strong

Despite self-awareness, a person makes many decisions everyday, even if many are subtle. Getting out of bed, deciding what clothes to wear, and even the attitude you display to others. While there are many factors that contribute to these decision making, a major factor is who your peers are. Peers, whether they be a close friend, family member, or even a teacher, can influence what you aspire to do, and how you live your life. In The Other Wes Moore, peers’s play a big role shaping the lives and decisions of both Wes’s, further leading them to their places in the current world, just as peers have shaped my sister, Katie’s decisions as well. Friends heavily influence teenagers, attributing to teens’ stubbornness. By setting examples to follow, peers either set positive or negative standards that teens attempt to assimilate, gaining either positive or negative traits.

When a child reaches the age of ten and up, no matter what gender, their behavior changes. The transition from childhood to adulthood goes through puberty, a period in life where adolescents are inclined to do actions that are risky like smoking, having unprotected sex and drinking alcohol. However these actions vary depending on ethnicities. The objective of this essay will be to compare and contrast risky activities, parental control and peers pressure to two different ethnic groups from America, white and black teens.

To better understand the role of peer groups on adolescent behavior, we must first examine its origin in contemporary society. Industrialization in the

More than ever in this society as children find the need to belong or fit in to the popular crowd in school for acceptance they often tend to mimic their friends behaviors. This is often a result of the individual child trying to find him or herself. The results however, are not always negative. In fact, there are some positive results that may occur as a result of copying their peers. Simply stated, “When teens surround themselves with people who make good decisions and who are involved with positive activities and choices, it makes the adolescent child want to be better” (Stock, 2010 pg.2). Positive peers influence adolescents and can drive the child toward improved confidence, and improved grades in school. Inversely, the same can be said for the adolescent child who decides that he or she wants to be like his or her friends who have a negative influence. Children who fall into this category are those that are of the bandwagon philosophy. Those negatively impacted by peers often show signs of lower grades in school, increased distance from family. In fact, “peer pressure can lead to experimentation with drugs and alcohol, and various high risks behaviors” (Fact Sheets, 2009 pg.1). The changes in the adolescent child can have lasting effects depending on which type of peer influences that child may be surrounded by. The negative impact of peer pressure can be strong; however there are also positive influences.

As children enter adolescence, cultural, biological and cognitive changes cause variation in their daily lives. Adolescents spend far less time with their parents and begin participating in both structured and unstructured peer activities.Without the direct presence of their parents or other adults, their peer network begins to become the primary context for most socialization and activity. These social "cliques" fundamentally influence adolescent life and development.Perhaps because they are perceived as an external threat to parental authority, undesired changes in adolescent behavior are often attributed to cliques.In these situations, cliques are described as "social grouping[s] of persons that exhibit a great deal of peer pressure on its members and is exclusive, based on superficial differences".Researchers, however, question these assumptions: based on empiric data from both experiments and ethnographies they suggest that clique structure characterizes many friendship networks within any given school, not all of which negatively affect adolescents.A more neutral and scientific definition of clique is "a grouping of persons who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting."

In a world for teenagers, there is high school. Attending these high schools are millions of students who are all so diverse. In the U.S. today, the adolescents are more isolated from adults and children outside of their age group than ever before. Age segregation has created a youth that is different from adult culture in its values and attitudes. Society is constantly changing from generation to generation causing teenagers to rely on one another to teach them things that adults cannot. Adolescents have survived using many different mechanisms; by creating groups to cling to, the use of drugs, and any other outlet that they can find.

Conformity to risk-taking of adolescents versus adults. Individuals are more likely to conform when behaving publically rather than alone. This may be based on the need to meet the group’s expectation in an attempt to gain acceptance and appear favorable. However, the way social groups influence individuals’ attitudes and behaviors varies, and a reason for these variations may be due to age. Gardner and Steinberg (2005) investigated the effects of peer pressure on risky thoughts and behaviors and how these factors influence different age groups of adolescents, young adults, and adults. Gardner and Steinberg (2005) hypothesized that risk taking thoughts and behaviors decrease with age, risk taking thoughts and behaviors will increase when

Understanding adolescent development is extremely important when you are dealing with adolescents because their brains and bodies are ever-changing. If you understand adolescences, you will know that adolescents develop at different rates in all developmental areas of their lives. Understanding that adolescents develop at a different speed in all aspects of their lives will allow you to be able to understand better why they make the choices they do (Understanding Adolescents and Addiction, Unit 1, MRU, 2017). Their brains haven’t developed the skills to manage making these choices. Adolescents deserve a special conversation since they are going through a multitude of changes. These changes are physical, emotional, psychological and social. The special conversation that is needed for each adolescent is because they are all at different stages in their development cycle and no two

The middle adolescence phase is highly influenced by peer group involvement. Friends become the primary source of influence on the young people’s behavior (Neinstein, Gordon, Katzman, Rosen, & Woods, 2009, p. 16).

The time period from late adolescence to the late 20s thus relates to both social-role changes and biological development (Djordjevic, 2010). Additionally, how capable an individual is able to manage these transitions is most likely to influence and be influenced by, mental health (Schulenberg & Zarett, 2006). The greater self-selection and reduction of institutional support during emerging adulthood seem to be good for most individuals, but may also be debilitating for those of who it jeopardizes to overwhelm their coping-capacity (Schulenberg & Zarett, 2006). However, possible strain from the major transitions of emerging adulthood do not necessarily have long term effects and may result only in momentary disturbances (Schulenberg & Zarett,

For example, if one adolescent participates in early sexual initiation, other adolescents from his/her peer group are then more likely to form the attitude this action is appropriate and then also participate in the same risky behavior. Therefore, if an adolescent is allowed the opportunity to interact with risk-taking peers, positive family factors may no longer be a protective factor against risk taking behaviors (Smith et al. 2005). However, if parents are aware that their adolescent’s peer group participates in risky behaviors and restrict their adolescent’s involvement in the peer group, this parental monitoring may buffer the negative impact of the peer group. On the other hand, if a parent is less involved, possibly due to parenting stress, maternal depression, etc., then an adolescent may continue engaging with the risk taking peer group. Continued exposure to a group of risk taking peers will in turn influence the adolescent’s own risk taking attitudes and behaviors (Galan, 2016).

We all have been young adolescents before and experienced all the things junior high and high school has to offer. Being a teenager is something everyone has or will experience in our life times. Teenagers go through a crucial time in their lives where they really figure out who they are and how to make more adult decisions. Peer pressure has always been a regular part of teenage life. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry state's “Peers play a large role in the social and emotional development of children and adolescents. Their influence begins at an early age and increases through the teenage years. It is natural, healthy and important for children to have and rely on friends as they grow and

In “Ecology of Youth Collective Socialization”, Nicotera, Williams, and Anthony argue that multiple social ecology influences of peers, school, as well as neighborhoods are extensively related to youth’s well-being, as well as misconducts. Within the article written, the intended audience consists of scholars, professionals, parents, as well as current and future researchers. The three authors submitted multiple hypotheses regarding the influences of peers, school, as well as neighborhoods on today’s youth while omitting familial influences.