This prom season we will be with students in more than 35 high schools in eight counties all across our Piedmont Triad area as part of our Safe Sober Prom Night program. The program is more than just don’t drink and drive or use drugs – it is a program of success based on smart choices.
Our Daggett Shuler team enjoys spending time with our local high school students at all of the schools. Wow, are they impressive! As impressive as our students are, we are also starkly reminded of the need for continuing encouragement and support. Teens today face incredible peer pressure. We need to use and turn this power of peer pressure into a positive direction.
Unfortunately, much of the daily peer pressure facing our students is not as neutral. Left uncontrolled or not channeled in a proper direction it can often be negative and damaging. Among the pressures our teens face daily are alcohol, drugs, and sexually activity.
People (teens and adults alike) give in to the temptations of peer pressure for a number of reasons. We’re all afraid of rejection and of being teased by others. Teens particularly want to fit in, or to just be cool. Peers influence your life, even if you don’t realize it, just by spending time with you. As students readily observe, “You become who you hang with!”
Positive peer pressure can be incredibly powerful too! Positive, supportive and loyal friendships can lead to academic success, sharpening of social skills, and the willingness to experience new cultures and activities.
We can have an enormous influence on our teen generation by encouraging and supporting positive peer pressure. We can encourage positive behaviors and friendships.
Most of all, positive peer pressure leads to good decisions and choices that are the building blocks of satisfying and fulfilling lives.