Pressure4parents.com
Parentline 020 5320 4444
Kids helpline 020 5320 1111
98
10.2
PEER PRESSURE
READING AND VOCABULARY
WORD FORMATION
1
What do you understand by the phrase
peer pressure
?
Can you give an example of it?
2
Read the webpage quickly, then briefly answer the
four questions in the webpage from memory.
3
Read the webpage again and match the comments
from people who have phoned the kids helpline or the
parentline with the paragraphs they most closely link
to in topic.
a
‘I know my son's classmates are bright kids but I
don't know any of them or their parents. I'm worried
that they might have been brought up with different
standards and have a bad influence on my son.’
b
‘I know one girl who the teachers love because she’s
always polite to them, but she is really cruel to some
students who can’t stand up for themselves.’
c
‘I pretend to like the same pop music as my friends,
but actually I prefer classical music.’
d
‘I’m in a friendship group at school and we do the
same things and have similar hobbies. I wouldn’t do
anything to upset the group.’
1
What is peer pressure and why does it happen?
We all want to be part of a group and feel like we
belong in our community. Peer pressure can happen
when we are influenced to do something we would
not usually do because we want to be accepted by our
peers (i.e. groups of friends who are about the same
age and share the same interests).
Children and young adults especially feel social
pressure to conform to the peer group with which they
socialise. Conformity, which is the most common form
of social influence, is usually defined as the tendency
to think or act like other members of a group.
2
How does peer pressure affect people?
Peer pressure can influence how people dress, how
they talk, what music they listen to, what attitudes they
adopt and how they behave. Teenagers want to belong
and it is hard to belong if you are always going against
the grain. They want to be liked, to fit in and to be
accepted, which means peer pressure can be powerful
and hard to resist. People never want to be looked
down upon or made fun of. This means that people who
are low on confidence and unsure of themselves may be
more likely to seek their peers’ approval by going along
with risky suggestions. Peer pressure can lead people to
do things they would not normally do on their own. In
one study, a student who knew the correct answer to a
question actually gave the wrong answer because all the
others in the class gave the wrong answer and he didn’t
want to be different.
3
Can peer pressure lead to bullying?
Peer pressure definitely plays a role in bullying. If a
teenager is generally seen as weak or different by the
majority of their peers, they can become a safe target
for bullies. Bullies pick easy targets, people that
the group are unlikely to defend or get upset over.
Bullies can also threaten and tease other teenagers
anonymously over the internet. This is called cyber-
bullying. Unfortunately, some bullies are popular and
liked by many of their peers, which means others
are less likely to call the behaviour bullying. These
popular bullies can act appropriately towards teachers
and adults so the problem often goes unnoticed.
Many victims of bullies feel very lonely, have low
self-esteem and become depressed. Understandably,
parents are often deeply worried when their children
are being bullied.
4
What can parents do about it?
To achieve peace of mind, parents need to know with
whom their children are associating. They need to
encourage children to stay out of situations in which they
know they would be pressurised and uncomfortable.
Children should learn to feel comfortable saying ‘no’,
to choose their friends wisely, to talk to someone they
trust, to think about the consequences of their actions
and be true to themselves.
More information
You may want to check out the links at the bottom of
the page for more information:
4
a
Look at the verbs in the box and find their nouns in
the webpage.
approve behave conform suggest
4
b
Form the noun for the verbs in the box using the
suffixes from Exercise 4a.
associate continue define disable propose
refuse save secure
5
Evaluating effectiveness
Work with a partner and
discuss the questions.
1
What is the purpose of the webpage?
2
How successful do you think it is?
3
What other questions would you add?
6
Which of the following forms of bullying do you think
is the worst, and why? Physical, verbal or cyber-bullying?
Bullying • Differences and values • Finding help
