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How to Deal with Peer Pressure

Confidently and Assertively

It can be really tempting to do everything you can to fit in with your friends. But if you don’t feel comfortable, it’s okay to say “no” and make your own choices.

How many times as adults have we been pressurised by our friends into ‘just one more drink’, or staying ‘just a bit longer’ and how difficult is it to resist at times?

Peer Pressure and Young People

For young people peer pressure is doubly difficult to resist. They can be faced with new situations and circumstance which they are ill equipped to manage. They do not have the experience, have not yet fully developed the ability to balance risks and consequences and can have poor impulse control. New experiences can be either positive or negative and having positive peers around to help and support make good decisions can be important in young people being able to make safe and healthy decisions; add to this potential drug and alcohol use and it is easy to see why the teaching of this topic is crucial with young people.

Managing peer pressure is usually not that difficult if you are only surrounded by people whose values, preferences, and behaviors are similar to yours.

How can Life Skills courses help?

Understanding sources of both positive and negative pressure, and peer pressure are vital in the journey of development for young people. Using our DAaRT crew as examples, students are able to identify and learn to manage risky situations and to practice using our resistance strategies. Exploring risky and stressful situations through workbook, videos and role play scenarios all enable students to develop greater confidence in their ability to face up to challenges

Which course do I need?

All of our KS2 and 3 courses deal with peer pressure.

Some helpful resources around how to deal with peer pressure

Parent Zone

Parent Zone are the experts in digital family life. We provide support and information to parents, children and schools.

Families Online

Richmond mother and parenting coach, Alison Banks explains why peer pressure has so much influence on children and young people.

The BBC

The BBC Online website has a large number of resources surrounding issues of peer pressure, bullying and other relevant topics.

Childline

Childline is a service provided by NSPCC Weston and they have a whole section on how to deal with peer pressure.

Find Out More

Learn about how the Life Skills Primary programme can help.

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Life Skills Education Charity