Peers are people who are a similar age to you. Peer pressure for children and young people is feeling like they have to do something just because their friends or other people around them are doing it – feel like they fit in. Some of the types of things they may feel pressurised into doing are:
● Wearing the same clothes as their friends or looking a certain way
● Drinking smoking or taking drugs
● Changing their friends because their other friends don’t like them
● Bullying others
● Bunking off school
● Having a boyfriend or girlfriend
● Having sex or sexting
● Joining a gang
If a child or young person doesn’t want to do something that all of their friend’s are doing, it can be hard to stand up to them. Adults and parents, can teach children and young people that that friends should respect them and not make them do things that make them uncomfortable. Being assertive means you can tell to your friends why you don’t want to do something without being rude to them.
At Two Robbins we work with children on a one to one basis providing counselling on how to deal with situations such as peer pressure and bullying. We also tackle these issues, at schools and at home; through small workshops and group parenting programmes.