Meeting new people with a wide variety of attitudes and behaviors is typical in school or college environment, at the same time a person explores its individual identity and seeks social recognition and acceptance primarily in their reference groups who eventually become biggest influencer in their life. It is easy to get along with people having similar preferences and values to yours but at times you may be tempted to make choices against your belief system to fit in the group especially when you have freedom to make choices. Wrong kind of pressure sometimes makes a person violent or criminal.
Developing healthy and meaningful personal and professional relationships is a vital step towards becoming an independent adult. Parents provide essential support, and are open to encouraging children to open up to communication while navigating peer culture, addressing complex social situations and enhancing social skills to make smart decisions and avoid peer pressure. Effectively telling 'no' while maintaining a relationship is an ability that needs to be nurtured in adolescents. Choosing friendship over morals while engaging in behavior, whenwe don't want to fit into the group, leads to emotions that are nothing but guilty.
Feeling of being unpopular among peers, occasionally makes us feel hesitated when we say no. Good negotiating skills and strong body language will help you have alternatives. Boundaries should be formed in order to keep teens healthy and to express their values as their preference, and to leave rest to others if they still choose to maintain relationship with them. In real life, new techniques for combating peer pressure should be practiced wherever possible to build trust. Parents and teachers should help teach kids how to respond to a given real-life situation. It helps children develop these abilities naturally but not aggressively.
