How to help students manage peer pressure amongst their friends

Peer pressure is, unfortunately, the thing that most of us failed to escape back when we were still in school, but students that are still in school, in such a tender age struggle to cope with different kinds of social pressure. 

Some of them, unfortunately, being bullying, any kind of harassment, making new friends/ being part of the cool kid's group. Below we will talk about various ways how your kids or students can find an escape from this.

Before jumping into anything, let us first grasp what do you mean by peer pressure exactly.

By going by the word peer, it refers to schoolmates/classmates, as students spend most of their time in school and hence have to work with them in projects and other activities. During the same process, any student might feel that they need to do the same thing to impress their peers of the same age, as the factor of being liked and accepted is always there.

1) Try Not To Overreact

There will be times where your kids will come up to you and talk about school and what their friends are up to, and it is plausible that you might hear something upsetting. At that moment, it is very crucial not to blame, yell or lecture them, instead try to stay calm and not jump to any conclusions.

Try to, in a friendly manner, make your kids understand the consequences of their actions, and how that might not be ideal. 

2) Invite Their Friends Over

Ask your kids to call their friends over lunch or dinner, and fully utilise that time to get to know them and figure out if they are a good influence for your kids. Due to some incident, if you feel that they are not a good influence, it is time to have a talk with your kid and let them know. However, there is a time and day for everything, make sure you choose the right time and words. Be sensitive to your kid's feelings.

3) Teach Them Effective Responses

If you think that your child is not fully prepared to respond to peer pressure, or is not fully aware of how to react. Then you can discuss certain strategies with them, some of them are -

• Stop and Think – Ask your child to take a moment, step back and think before responding to her/his fellow students, relating to peer pressure. Make them think about what the consequences will entail if they indulge in such behaviour. By doing so, you are allowing them to take some time and contemplate the results of their actions, thereon help them make the correct decision.

• Say No – Tell your kids to be upfront and say ‘NO’, when you clearly set boundaries and use sentences like “No, I don’t find that acceptable”. You are in a way teaching your kids the right kind of vocabulary, and that it is fine to use such sentences. You can also help them by making them practise this at home first. 

So these were a few ways through which you can help your kids or fellow students deal with peer pressure. A lot of CBSE schools in India do not condone such kind of behaviour, and if you are thinking of enrolling your kids in a school, we would advise you to go for the best CBSE schools only.