Peer Pressure and Its Influence

Peer Pressure and Its Influence on Adolescents

An investigation on how the impact of peer pressure on adolescents with regard to alcohol, drugs, tobacco and other decision

This paper presents an examination of the impact that peer pressure has on adolescents. The writer focuses on peer pressure and its influence on adolescent decision with regard to alcohol, drug and tobacco use as well as becoming youthful offenders. There were 10 sources used to complete this paper.

Across the nation news shows carry coverage about adolescent offenders, the use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs by teenagers and other stories that make one wonder what the world is coming to. Among those stories are often public outcries asking where the parents were when all of this began happening and many times the answer is that the parents were right there doing everything they could to stop it. When children are young their parents have a significant influence over their thoughts, beliefs and behaviors. They turn to their mother or father for guidance and advice in almost every aspect of their lives. As they begin to age however, it seems that many children stop turning to their parents for advice. It is a time when many parents are at a loss as to why their formally complacent and corporative child suddenly stopped socializing with peers and parents and seems to spend the majority of his or her time talking to friends on the phone. For many parents it is a time of concern, as they watch their formerly cooperative child turn into a teenager who rebels at many turns. The parents tell themselves that they have instilled the right values and decision making abilities in that child so he or she will be fine. Unfortunately for many this is not the case and parents throughout the world cringe with worry as their sons and daughters begin experimenting with drugs, tobacco, and alcohol. In addition, many families are suddenly faced with legal issues as their adolescents begin to act out and get charged with various crimes. When these events occur parents wonder what happened? How did their children get to a point where they believed the choices they were making were appropriate and acceptable. This is when attention often turns to the peers the teenager has been associating with.

Adolescents is a time of self-discovery and examination. Children are beginning to spread their wings to discover who they are and who they want to be. Lifelong habits are often established in adolescence including responsibility, work ethic and personal values. In addition there are often other habits established during this time as well, including drug, alcohol and tobacco as well (Alberg, et al., 2006).

Often time parents turn to the friends of their adolescent to point fingers of blame when their teenager begins making choices that the parents do not agree with. How much of the adolescent behavior is influenced by their friends is a debate that has been conducted for years. Recent studies however, indicate that the peer pressure of adolescence plays a significant part in adolescent decisions.

How it Works

For one to begin to understand the impact that peer pressure has on adolescents one only needs to look at statistics and facts as they relate to smoking cigarettes. There are an estimated 450,000 Americans who die every year because of smoking related diseases. Studies have concluded that more than 90% of today's smokers began smoking in their adolescent years (Smith, Karen et al., 2006).

Each day, nearly 6,000 children under the age of 18 start smoking; of these, nearly 2,000 will become regular smokers. Currently, approximately 4.5 million U.S. adolescents are cigarette smokers, and if current tobacco use patterns persist, an estimated 6.4 million children will die prematurely from a smoking-related disease (American Lung Association 2003). If one considers the detrimental health, economic, and social effects of smoking, it becomes increasingly important to develop effective antismoking campaigns that encourage adolescents to stop using tobacco and to deter future smokers from beginning (Smith, Karen et al., 2006)."

Studies that have examined the perception of smokers among adolescents found that there is a direct relationship between the perception of smoking and whether or not one chooses to smoke. This study lends itself to support for the influence of peer pressure in adolescence as it examines the perception of smoking by adolescent groups throughout the nation.

While the study was focused on anti-smoking messages and their effectiveness it concentrated on what advertisements were effective and which ones were not. In looking at those advertisements and anti-smoking slogans the study found that a significant influence was realized through an anti-smoking campaign that depicted attractive and popular teenagers refusing to smoke.

In one of the few research studies in which an experiment was conducted, Pechmann et al. (2003) tested antismoking advertising themes from several states as well as from the American Cancer Society and the Centers for Disease Control. Three themes (endangers others, refusal skills role model, and smokers' negative life circumstances) increased adolescents' intentions not to smoke and did so by enhancing their perceptions that smoking poses severe social disapproval risks (Smith, Karen et al., 2006)."

The results lend support to the idea that peer pressure in adolescence plays an important role in the decisions that adolescents make about significant life issues.

In 2003 Smith and Stutts conducted a separate study in which they examined the influence of peer pressure and cosmetic threat to adolescents with regard to smoking or not smoking cigarettes. The study found that adolescents who believed their peers would be judgmental of their tobacco habits or believed that they would become less attractive were less likely to begin smoking (Smith, Karen et al., 2006).

Conrad, Flay, and Hill (1992) reviewed findings from 27 studies regarding cigarette smoking and found strongly supported relationships between smoking onset and peer and social bonding, peer smoking and approval, and offers/availability of cigarettes. Hu et al. (1995) found that the effects of friends' smoking were stronger than those of parental smoking in influencing adolescent smoking behavior. Adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, parent education, school, and availability of cigarettes in the home, the risk of smoking among adolescents in grades 7-12 was significantly associated with peer networks in which at least half of the members smoked, one or two best friends smoked, and an increasing percentage of students who smoke (Alexander et al. 2001). Unger et al. (2001) found that the influence of friends' smoking behavior was stronger among whites than among other ethnic groups such as Pacific Islanders, African-Americans, and Hispanic / Latinos (Smith, Karen et al., 2006)."

Thinking Outside the Box

While it has been shown that peer influence is an important factor with regard to smoking cigarettes it is important to test the peer pressure hypothesis against other standards to know whether it is a peer pressure issue or a life habit issue.

In 2006 a study conducted by Jose Nemegyei, Gutierrez Nuno, Lidia Bertha and Cerda Rodriquez, examined the influence of peer pressure in adolescence on the decision to begin using illegal drugs (Alvarez, et all 2006).

The study focused on three possible explainations for drug use debuts including cultural, peer pressure and family beliefs and individual issues including confrontation skills and temperament (Alvarez, et all 2006).

The study looked at several earlier studies that indicated peer pressure, and family access to drugs were both significant factors in an adolescent decision to begin using drugs.

One such earlier study named peer influence as an important factor with regard to drug use. That study, conducted in 2003 found that adolescents who begin using drugs also believe they are stronger than their peers and will not become addicted (Alvarez, et all 2006).

When examining drug use in a study by Bryant, Schulenberg, Bachman, O'Malley, & Johnston, 2000; Bryant & Zimmerman, 2002; the research team found that peer drug use had a significant impact on adolescent decisions to begin using drugs.

This was an important finding as it points toward the strength peer pressure can have in the life of an adolescent and provides evidence that it is important to monitor who and what type of friends an adolescent has if one is targeting keeping the adolescent from drug use (Alvarez, et all 2006).

The study used teenagers who admitted to using multiple types of drugs for addiction purposes within the month before study began. Each study participant was a self admitted addict though the drugs they were addicted to varied.

Most of the participants lived in urban low income areas. When asked about their drug use and its beginning 98% of the participants reported that peer influence and peer pressure were significant factors in their decision to begin using drugs.

Out of the adolescents who were used in the study 15 of them were later chosen to take part in-depth interviews with members of the research team (Alvarez, et all 2006).

Out of those interviews, it was determined that peer pressure and neighborhood environment wee among the three most important factors when it came to adolescent drug use. Other factors included family problems and family substance abuse.

Two common aspects occurred in all three blocks: first, interaction between the individual and the collective perspective; and second, the relationship between the subject's interior (e.g., individual, family) and exterior (e.g., environment and peer pressure) facets (Alvarez, et all 2006)."

One of the interviews revealed a combination of peer pressure and family problems as the catalyst for her drug debut.

Female, 16 years old: never had any kind of communication with my parents, I always found refuge with people who I thought were my friends. At home I always had fights with my Mom, and then I felt emotionally really bad. Then in high school I met a guy, he always said "let's go," and I thought: What a wonderful thing if he accepts me, and one day he said "Try this," and it was all over after that."

Adolescent peer pressure is not exclusive to American adolescents. It is worldwide issue that has been addresses through research on an international level. A study conducted in Singapore looked at adolescent youthful offenders and the peer pressure that they may or may not have succumbed to in the decision to offend.

One of the issues this study revealed was the fact that many youthful offenders do not do well in school. Studies have indicated that peer pressure also has an influence on the success or failure of adolescents in school settings, which extrapolated can be seen to also have an influence on decisions to offend the criminal justice system (Bullock, et all 2007).

A third theory relates to the disproportional of youths (i.e., youth of color) in the juvenile justice system. Data show that a significantly disproportionate number of youth in juvenile justice facilities who are ethnic minorities exists, especially African-Americans and Hispanics (e.g., Nelson, Leone, & Rutherford, 2004). Many of these individuals are from low socioeconomic families and live in neighborhoods with poor living conditions where drug and alcohol abuse is prominent. The lack of appropriate adult role models is a common condition. In general, these youths have been treated differently during their school careers, and because of this, they have gravitated to other alienated youths like themselves who seek recognition, which often brings them into conflict with law enforcement (Bullock, et all 2007)."

This theory promotes the belief that peer pressure creates youthful offenders because it is when the adolescent begins to socialize with the alienated youth they begin t make decisions that land them in the criminal justice system for youthful offenders.

This particular study examined the case files of more than 50 inmates who were under the age of 21 when they first came into the system. Almost half of the offenders examined were first time offenders with the other half being categorized as repeat offenders in the system.

According to this study, the most immediate precipitator to the event leading to arrest was peer pressure and influence. One hundred percent of the offenders were with their peers immediately before or while committing the crime that they were arrested for committing (Bullock, et all 2007).

Some of them were arrested for helping peers settle disputes such as in retaliation shootings, beatings or other acts of violence. Others committed their crimes as part of a gang activity while still others said that they committed their crimes to comply with a threat by peers to do so (Bullock, et all 2007).

In one instance, a dispute at an interclass soccer match escalated into a fight. One group outnumbered the other group, and the offender joined in the fight to help his friend's smaller group. Another instance concerned an offender helping a friend take revenge on an ex-girlfriend when she was spotted with another man. Other friends or reinforcements were called in. Although the offender and his friend approached the victim with the intention of finding out the truth, members of the reinforcement team attacked the victim and a fight ensued, with everyone joining in to kick and punch the victim (Bullock, et all 2007). "

One surprising result of this study was the fact that 13% of the participants reported they had committee their crime and other crimes because they wee bored and with their friends. According to the case studies the adolescents in question wee with friends when the friends suggested that attacking someone or committing an assault at the local mall would be fun and cure the boredom the group was feeling. The adolescent agreed to take part in the suggestion of those friends and an innocent person was attacked (Bullock, et all 2007).

About six percent of the participants in the study reported that they had been drinking and taking drugs with their peers immediately before committing the crime they committed.

After a bout of alcohol, one offender with two friends as accomplices decided to beat up Chinese male teenagers and to steal from them. Upon locating a victim in the vicinity, a scuffle broke out and the victim's bag was taken. The offender and his friends later located another Chinese male. The offenders hit the victim, stole his wallet, and fled (Bullock, et all 2007)."