Is your youngster bogged down by negative peer influence?

Interacting with friends is crucial for a kid’s learning and overall development. Building peer communities and social groups helps children develop a wide range of interests, stay actively involved in school, and build interpersonal relationships, especially in adolescents. Establishing social groups lends them a feeling of belonging and acceptance. Moreover, peers have a deep influence on your kids in more ways than one.  

Peer influence and its impact 
Peers impact the developmental process of kids, especially at the adolescent stage. At this age, children spend more time with their friends than their parents and other family members. Peer interaction starts shaping their belief, choices and behaviour, sometimes in a positive way and at others, in a negative way too.  So, you may find your teenager picking up strange habits (sometimes negative too!) to fit into his circle. Negative peer influence can lead to practices like smoking or drinking or doing recreational drugs. The impact can also manifest through changes in social behaviour, like using derogatory language, becoming a bully, minor violence, trivialising important issues, engaging in micro-aggressions and sometimes even full-blown discriminatory behaviour. 

Quelling negative peer impact 
Appropriate parental involvement in the early stages of development can certainly mitigate the chances of children succumbing to peer pressure and negative influence. Here are the right ways to help them make the right decision and bounce back from negative influence.  

Keep an open line of communication: Stay connected with your children and establish a trusting dynamic with them which is free of judgement and based on mutual respect. This will make them feel comfortable approaching you with their problems. Adolescents who are comfortable talking to their parents about sensitive issues and significant problems in life, trust parental judgement. They are less likely to rely heavily on friends for emotional support and succumb to peer pressure.  

Don’t be quick to blame their social groups: While it may be clear to you that the problems your children are facing are a result of bad company, it may not be as apparent to them. In such a situation, it is best to not immediately point fingers at their friends as it can cause your children to take a defensive stance, making them shy away from you. Instead, ask them some questions which will help your youngster come to the realisation on his own. Encourage him to explore the reasons that landed him in this situation and learn from those experiences. 

Build their confidence and sense of self-worth: Children who feel comfortable in their skin and have a reconciled sense of self-worth and self-perception are likely to be able to resist peer pressure. Encourage them to build their identities on their interests and virtues, successes and emotional strength. Teach them to analyse and judge situations by their own perspective. 

Expose them to healthier environments: One of the most obvious ways of protecting your children from negative peer influence is avoidance. Enroll them in academic institutions that are reputed for positive peer environments, expose them to communities that boost positive interpersonal relationships and emotional growth.