Helping Adolescents Deal with Peer Pressure

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Helping Adolescents Deal with Peer Pressure
Developed by the Center for School Mental Health
(http//csmh.umaryland.edu) in collaboration
with the Maryland School Mental Health Alliance.
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Contents

• Peer Pressure
• Tips for Educators and Related Staff
• Positive vs. Negative Peer Pressure
• How to identify a troubled child
• Warning signs
• Strategies to Help Children
• Skill building activities
• Communication
• How to Say No
• Actual programs to implement in schools?

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Pressures

• Transition into middle school and becoming a
  teenager can be very challenging for children.
  Some changes include added pressures from friends
  and peers.
• Pressures are a normal part of life and children
  need guidance from their teachers, parents and
  other adults so that they are able to handle
  these pressures in a positive way.
• Some of these pressures may be drugs, truancy,
  sex, shop-lifting, bullying, cheating, and any
  other action that a child may not want to do.

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What you can do?

• Make students aware of some of the pressures they
  may encounter
• Demonstrate the difference between positive and
  negative peer pressure
• Provide suggestions and strategies to help
  children deal with peer pressure

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Positive vs. Negative Peer Pressure

• Negative Peer Pressure-
• Is often dangerous and against
• school rules, home rules and
• personal values.
• Skipping school
• Vandalizing
• Smoking
• Sneaking out of the house
• Bullying
• Disrespecting authority
• Sex

• Positive Peer Pressure-
• Is often overlooked but does exist
• and may be described as an
• influence to do what is right.
• Studying
• Volunteering
• Befriending someone
• Community Service
• Joining a sports team

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Identifying Students

• Traits putting students at a higher risk of
  falling to peer
• pressure
• Low self esteem
• Lack of confidence
• Uncertainty about ones place within a given peer
  group
• No personal interests exclusive of one's peer
  group
• Feeling isolated from peers and/or family
• Lack of direction in life
• Depression
• Eating disorders
• Poor academic abilities or performance

Retrieved on January 3rd, 2007 from
http//teenadvice.about.com/cs/peerpressure/a/blp
eerpressure.htm
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Helping Children Deal with Peer Pressure

• Steps children can follow when confronted with
  peer pressure
• Ask Questions
• Why would we do that ?, Whose idea was this
  ?, Is this a smart thing to do ?
• Identify the negative behavior or action
• Calling her names is just going to start
  trouble, dont think smoking is a good idea,
  It is against school policy to leave the
  grounds.
• Evaluate the consequences
• We will get in trouble, Smoking is not
  healthy, My parents will take away my
  allowance
• http//www.new-life.net/parent06.htm

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Steps continued

• Suggest an alternative
• Why dont we go to the store after school is
  over
• Leave the situation
• If all else fails, remove yourself from the
  situation. Walk away and do something else

• http//www.new-life.net/parent06.htm

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Positive and Healthy Ways to Deal with Pressures

• Strategies for students to use
• Make a joke and change the subject
• Say no and keep saying no Leave the area
• Get help from someone you trust
• Suggest a different activity
• Hang out with others who share your beliefs
• Help students develop decision making skills

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Strategies to help children deal

1. Relinquish the stereotype of peers as a uniformly
   negative influence on youth.
2. Nurture teenagers' abilities and self-esteem so
   they can forge positive peer relationships
3. Empower parents and educators to help teenagers
   pursue and maintain positive peer relationships
4. Encourage cross-ethnic and "cross-class" peer
   interactions and guide teenagers in dealing
   positively with cultural diversity and individual
   differences.

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Strategies to help children deal

1. Place sensible restraints on part-time teen
   employment
2. Support parent education programs for families
   with teenagers
3. Establish intervention programs for
   preadolescents with low social skills or
   aggressive tendencies.

http//sitemaker.umich.edu/356.darnell/strategies_
for_coping_with_peer_pressure
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Bullying

• Bullying can become a major problem for some
  students and often students are pressured to
  involve themselves in these situations
• It is important to identify and attempt to
  rectify these situations as they interfere with
  your students learning and development and
  potentially affect the overall functioning of
  your classroom.
• Any child can fall victim to being
• bullied and any child has the potential
• to be the bully

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Steps towards an action plan for Bullying

• Teachers must make it safe for students to report
  bullying
• Students must trust that teachers and
  administrators will respect the anonymity of the
  student who reports information
• Educators and related staff must be aware of all
  forms of bullying. Identifying intentions of
  bullying are
• There is a power difference
• There is a negative intention
• The behavior is repeated
• There must be a clear and effective plan for
  dealing with the bully and the victim. Students
  must know the consequences of bullying.
• Retrieved on February 5th 2007 from
  http//www.bullybeware.com/tips.html

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Steps Continued

• School personnel must know about the different
  types of bullies. Some victims are also bullies.
• An effective tool for dealing with bullying is
  utilizing the masses who arent involved in
  bullying situations. These students can take a
  stand and prevent bullying incidents.

Retrieved on February 5th 2007 from
http//www.bullybeware.com/tips.html
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Possible Signs of Bullying

• Watch for changes in the students behavior
• Unwilling to go to school
• Feeling ill in the morning
• Withdrawal behavior
• Decrement in school performance
• Having books or clothing destroyed
• Truancy
• Stammering
• Becoming aggressive or unreasonable
• For more information go to
• http//csmh.umaryland.edu/resources.html/resource_
  packets/download_files/bullying_2002.pdf

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What can you do to help?

• Model pro-social behavioral that asserts
  self-worth of each individual student
• Actively observe student behavior in the
  classroom
• Speak with parents to see if additional stressors
  at home contribute to the bullying dynamic
• Include discussions of conflict-resolution in
  your lesson plan

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What can you do?

• Ask school clinicians to present on consequences
  of bullying
• Become familiar with the bulling prevention
  curriculum in the school
• If there isnt one, start incorporating bullying
  curriculum in your lesson plans including
  knowledge, attitudes, and skill development
  pertaining to bullying
• Role play in the classroom to help students
  develop refusal skills

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What can you do?

• Suggest that students stay together and walk in
  groups when traveling to and from school and when
  outside during recess or lunch
• Meet with school administrators and help develop
  a bullying policy to implement school wide.
• More information can be obtained from Dr. Ken
  Rigby at
• http//www.education.uni
  sa.edu.au/bullying/

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Tips/Facts to help with Bullying

• Understanding why children bully / victimize
  others is of key importance in initiating change
  of this behavior
• Make it known that bullying and victimizing is
  not acceptable in your school and must be stopped
• Managing bullying requires that the bullying
  behavior be firmly admonished and controlled
• Counseling is essential and should be compulsory

Retrieved on February 12th 2007 from
http//www.bmef.org/bullying.htm, created by
Jenny MacKay of Educational Consultations
Australia Great Britain 1995
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Tips and Facts Continued

• Children who bully / victimize need to see
  themselves differently, with opportunities to
  behave differently
• The victim also needs to learn to act differently
  and be given opportunities to shine and show
  strength
• Bullying and victimization require that the
  school, the teacher, the parent, the peers, but
  most importantly the child (bully and victim),
  take responsibility to learn to act differently 

Retrieved on February 12th 2007 from
http//www.bmef.org/bullying.htm, created by
Jenny MacKay of Educational Consultations
Australia Great Britain 1995
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Useful Books and Online Resources

• Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
• http//www.clemson.edu/olweus/
• Take Action Against Bullying
• www.bullybeware.org
• Steps to Respect A Bully Prevention Program
  www.cfchildren.org/str.html
• Blueprints for Violence Prevention Book 9.
  Bullying Prevention Program (1999). By D. Olweus,
  S.Limber, S.F. Mihalic Boulder, CO Center for
  the Study and Prevention of Violence
• http//www.clemson.edu/olweus/
• Breaking the Cycle of Violence Intervention for
  Bullying and Victimization (1996) By Richard J.
  Hazler

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Resources Continued

• How to Say No and Keep your Friends Peer
  Pressure Reversal for
• Teens and Pre-Teens (1997). By Sharon Scott
• CAFS Teacher Talk Volume 1(3) 1996
• http//education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/v3i3/peerpre
  ss.html
• Preventing Classroom Bullying What Teachers Can
  Do (2003).
• By Jim Wright
• http//jimwrightsonline.com/pdfdocs/bully/bullyB
  ooklet.pdf
• Stop Bullying Now!
• http//stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/index.asp

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Resources Continued

• Resource for parents
• http//sitemaker.umich.edu/356.darnell/advice_
  for_parents

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Developed by the Center for School Mental Health
(http//csmh.umaryland.edu) in collaboration
with the Maryland School Mental Health Alliance.