EFFECTS OF PEER PRESSURE: ALCOHOL ABUSE
Peer pressure has an influence in every teenager’s life even they are not aware of it. It is everywhere, whether to be conformed to a group or being pressurized into doing something. Teens tend to spend more time with peers and less time with their family members. This makes them more vulnerable to the influences of their peers. One of the major influences of peer pressure is alcohol abuse.
Most teens give in to peer pressure in order to be accepted by their peer groups. Acceptance by peers is an important part of the way teens understand themselves and their identities. Perkins and Wechsler (1996) examined the variations in perceived college drinking norms and the effect it has on alcohol abuse by distributing questionnaires among 140 colleges around the United States of America and the District of Columbia. According to them those students who perceive the norms of the campus as quite permissive, are more likely to abuse alcohol. Thus if they believe that heavy alcohol use is the norm and is expected of them by their peers, they are more susceptible to abuse alcohol even after taking into consideration their personal attitudes about drinking alcohol.
It was also found that those students who believe in restrained drinking would have a very weak impact of the college norms on their behaviour. In contrast students that believed in drinking enough to get intoxicated is acceptable in many circumstances, then their perception of campus standards become more important. The individuals with permissive attitudes are either constrained to conform to their perception of a less permissive norm or are encouraged to give into peer pressure.
Another research article found similar results. Duffin (2006) concentrated on the attitudes and the origins of the attitudes that young people have towards alcohol through peer pressure. He uses the data gathered by the Perpetuity Research and Consultancy International (PRCI) on the trends of...