Background

Background: The Influence and Impact of Peer Pressure

Prepared by Nick Goldsmith

This experience is one of the many ways teenagers and children are affected by peer pressure. The great amount of influence and impact that peer pressure has on adolescents and children show that it is a social injustice. Peer pressure is the direct or indirect influence that a social group has on an individual. There are many different types of influence that a social group can have on a teen or a child. Some of the more common influences are the social group encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. For example, the group may want a teen to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol in order to fit in with the group. This example shows that peer pressure is a social injustice due to peer pressure encouraging children and teens to partake in activities that involve drugs and alcohol. Every teen and child of the social scene are affected by peer pressure because those who are in a specific social group, outside the social group but are in another group, or those who belong to no social group are being oppressed.
Contrary to popular belief, the adolescents who belong to popular cliques are oppressed by the strong influence of peer pressure. These popular adolescents may exert a lot of peer pressure onto their peers but they, too, feel the tug and pull of peer pressure. These teens “set the social norms” (pg. 94 of my Social Justice book) of the school. They also feel the most pressure to follow these norms. The members of the clique constantly make sure that other members of the group are following the social norms. If a member fails to meet the standards of these social norms then they are “ousted from the group.” (Pg.96 Social Justice Book) This is the pressure that adolescent members of cliques have to deal with. Thus, this type of pressure often leads to “deviant behavior.” (Pg.225 Social Justice Book) Deviant behavior is when a teen or child decides “to engage in disruptive, risky, or delinquent behavior” (Pg.225 Social Justice Book) .An example is alcohol use at a party or vandalizing a piece of property. Popular teens in cliques are also pressured to spread their social norms onto those outside the clique. This is seen when teens in cliques set the fashion sense of the school. Teens outside the social clique will begin to wear the same fashion that teens in the clique wear. Thus, teens and children in a popular clique are being oppressed because they feel the pressure from the clique to adhere to their norms, to spread these norms onto others, and to follow norms that often leads to deviant behavior, including drug and alcohol abuse.
Most of the children and adolescents, who do not belong to the main social clique, often “form other not as popular social groups.” (Pg.45 Social Justice Book) These teens are being oppressed by peer pressure. They are pressured “indirectly by the popular clique.”(Pg.46 Social Justice Book) For example, if the popular clique views vandalizing as something cool, then those outside this clique will begin to vandalize in order to be viewed in the same light as the popular social clique or to grab their attention. A second way these types of teens and children are being oppressed is through the social group’s “enabling nature.” (Pg. 72 Social Justice Book) In other words, members of the outside social groups often enable one another’s behavior because their social group’s formation is built upon common attitudes and views. For example, a teen who loves to read comic books most likely will not be in the same social group as a teen who loves to play football. Thus, these teens find similar teens that like the same things they do. These teens will then enable one another to continue their likings of the same thing. This is seen with alcohol and drug abuse. Social groups often enable its members to use alcohol and drugs if that is a part of their “social identity” (Pg.227 Social Justice Book) This concept influencing alcohol and drug usage shows that peer pressure is a social injustice because drug use and abuse is against the Catholic Church and its teachings.
“Those who do not belong to any social groups are labeled as loners or outcasts.” (From interviewee, Paul Zager) Loners are teens and children who prefer to not belong to a social group. Instead they remain by themselves or have one or two other friends. These children and adolescents are oppressed by peer pressure because they choose to not follow or be influenced by the social norms of the popular clique. They also try to resist influence from other social groups by not listening or giving into their actions. However, “these loners and outcasts are susceptible to peer pressure through the actions of bullies.” (Pg. 231 Social Justice Book) Bullies bully loners and outcasts because they do not try or fit into these social norms. For example, loners may choose to not dress to the standards of the rest of the social groups. This result in them being ridiculed by bullies. Bullies are teens and children of different social groups “who feel inadequate about themselves.” (Online source) This feeling of insecurity leads to the person bullying someone who is inferior to them in social stature. Loners are inferior to them due to their actions against conformity. Bullying is a problem because “17 percent of students in grades 6-10 reported having been bullied "sometimes".” (Online Source-olweus.org) Thus, peer pressure is a social injustice issue because the loners resisting peer pressure leads to them being bullied.
The oppressors of this injustice come in two forms- bullies and members of the social elite. “Bullying is persistent unwelcome behaviour, mostly using unwarranted or invalid criticism, nit-picking, fault-finding, also exclusion, isolation, being singled out and treated differently, being shouted at, humiliated, excessive monitoring, having verbal and written warnings imposed, and much more.” (Online source- bullyonline.org) Bullying causes constant emotional and sometimes physical harm onto the teen or child being bullied. Children and teens should not be bullied just because they do not fit into the social norms of their school. Also, bullies should not inflict harm onto others just because they are socially inferior or choose not to join a social group. This is why the influence of peer pressure is a social injustice. Members of the popular clique are also oppressors. They “set the social norms” (pg. 94 Social Justice Book) of the school. All of those who do not meet these social norms are seen as inferior. Thus, emotional abuse is indirectly created. Children and teens who do not meet these norms often feel insecure about themselves. Most teens will virtually do anything in order to conform to the social norms. Teens may start in “partaking in deviant behavior in order to conform to the social norms of the school.” (Pg.149 Social Justice Book) This is a social justice problem because teens should not partake in delinquent behavior or use drugs in order to “fit in”.
The social systems involved with peer pressure are the school system and social group system. The school system, when it comes to popularity, is hierarchical. There are a few select people on top who are the most popular (popular social clique). Then there are a lot of people who are involved in different sub social groups. Lastly, there are a few people on the bottom of the social structure that are loners and outcasts. This system is evil disguised as good because the school social structure should not come in hierarchical form. Students should not be seen as more popular just because they follow certain social norms or partake in deviant behavior. The school system should be an equal playing field where all students are treated equally. If peer pressure is gone from the school system then maybe some equality can be achieved. The social group system is also involved. During adolescence, “teens feel pressure from their peers to drift apart from their family” (Pg.4), especially their parents. This is evil disguised as good. Teens should not be spending less time with parents due to peer influence. The general public fails to recognize these systems as a part of the problem because many people don’t see peer pressure as a major problem. They feel that peer pressure is something everybody has to deal with during their adolescent years. However, there needs to be a response to peer pressure because children and teens are using more drugs, in more emotional pain, and are giving up more of their identity now then in years before.
Teens, children, their family, and their parents are those involved in this problem. Those on the outside pay little attention to this issue. Thus, peer pressure must be combated on the family level and on a larger scale in the community. Governments do not have the power or resources yet to make regulations that would combat peer pressure. Politicians can only say words that have no meaning attached to them. Citizens, like the government, do not have enough resources so study the problem and come up with an ample solution. Luckily, many sociologists, psycholgists, and therapist are working hard to come up with theories to negate the influence of peer pressure. There is no clear cut theory yet to combat peer pressure but hopefully sometime soon a universal theory to stop peer pressure will arise.
Peer pressure is a social justice issue. In today’s society, more and more children and adolescents are feeling the influence and impact of peer pressure. More adolescents are partaking in deviant behavior which includes drug and alcohol use and abuse. More and more teens are feeling the emotional and physical harm of bullying. Today, teens are giving up their sense of identity and their cultural roots in order to conform to the social norms. These three implications are against the Catholic Church and their teachings. More importantly, these implications are harming our future adults at a more alarming rate. Thus, society needs more of a constructed response to combating peer pressure. If this is achieved, then societies’ children and teens will be able to partake in less risky behaviors, feel more secure about themselves, and will be able to retain their sense of identity.