Peer Pressure in Adolescent’s Eyes

Peer Pressure in Adolescent’s Eyes

What is peer pressure? Peer pressure can be described as a positive or negative reaction that occurs when one is influenced by certain people (http://dictionary.com). Peer pressure is constantly surrounding individuals all the time. I believe friends, family members, and religious institutions have the strongest influence of peer pressure on society. When adolescents are faced with difficult decisions, they turn to those they can trust to help them make the right choice. With the help and guidance from those we love, adolescents can be influenced to choose a decision that is right. The only problem is the influence of peers has led teens and children astray by pressuring them to make the wrong decisions concerning, more specifically sexual behaviors and drugs. With the help by other support systems present in their lives, teens can learn to push away the bad influence and say “No” to the decisions that they are faced with and know what is right and what is wrong.

In today’s society it is very hard to find teens and even children who are virgins. Sex for example is a very big subject for adolescents. Once while it was popular to be a virgin, now it is not. Children and teens that are virgins are sometimes made fun of, excluded, or even lie about their virginity just to fit in. I believe that the media is partly responsible for this. When a child sees people on the television having sex, they want to go out and do the same thing. They do not understand what it is or how it affects him or her both mentally, sexually, physically, and most important spiritually. Sex is something that should be saved for marriage, although most people experience it before then.

Teens and children are having sex at a young age impart because most of their friends may be doing the same thing. The want to fit in and be part of the “in-crowd” so they will not follow what