Nowadays, many teens continue to develop mental instability due to stress, pressure family issues, personal battles, etc. It is highly alarming that most teenagers suffer from mental instability Peer pressure is one of the main reasons a teenager has mental instability. Many adolescents described peer pressure as the 'price of group membership' (Clasen and Brown, 1985) and, according to Brown (1986, p 522), 'peer pressure was specifically defined as' whether people of your age are urging you to do something or not to do something else, regardless of whether you want to do something personally or not. Mental instability is when there is one, according to an online website called psychologenie.com, Mental instability happens when one suffers from a condition that takes care of normal brain function, rendering it either harmful, unusual or out of control for those who encounter it (Sarah, 2019). Peer pressure causes mental instability among adolescents because they feel the need to conform and receive validation from their peers, they are pressured to do better academically, and last but not least the lack a good support system to tell them that their hard work is valid.
Having friends who support everyone and treat everyone without judgment is a nice feeling for an adolescent to feel. Belonging to a group means that in a daily routine, a person must do the same thing as the group does. It requires conformity with the interests and desires of a group, which can result in pressure on those members of the group to like a particular activity. As S Dobesova Cakirpaloglu, S. Lemrova, J. Kvintova, and S. Vevodova, conformity is characterized as a specific response of adolescents to the stress of the social environment and a series of findings in the fields of psychology and behavior. They also stated that group size is one of the social factors of conformist behavior,' the bigger the group, the bigger the group pressure on adolescents in the group' (Dobesova Cakirpaloglu, Lemrova, Kvintova and Vevodova, 2016). A study showed that adolescents have an inconsistent pattern of behavior among adolescents with high social anxiety (HSA) between social interaction stress (SIS) and social judgment stress (SJS) (La Greca et al., 1988; Turner et al., 1989; Teachman and Allen, 2007). SIS defines the possibility of a teenager working together to achieve something and communicate effectively, while SJS refers to the performance of an adolescent being observed, compared, criticized, and evaluated by others within or outside the peer group. As Haun and Tomasello have reported, teens exhibit more conformity behavior when they know that their thoughts, views, and choices will be presented to the public, they're afraid they'll be judged if they say anything contradictory to what their peers think. One of the reasons teens do things according to what their peers do is because they want affirmation and they want to prove their loyalty to their parents, so they are pressured to do something entirely contrary to what they believe in. It will leave them with low self-esteem, anxiety, or even depression if they are not accepted by their peers for who they are and what they believe in.
One of the main reasons teenagers are now developing mental instability due to peer pressure is academic pressure. Parents just want what's best for their kids, that's why parents think higher grades are better, and lower grades than they're expecting are worse because they're still in the performance-based culture that they think is better. As Abeles (Race to Nowhere) points out, the educational stress of the youth is destroying their self-esteem, joy, and imagination. According to Rubin, the best way for parents to help their children alleviate the academic burden is to engage with the academic situation of their children and give them some 'me-time' for their children. As Rubin said, every kid and teenager needs PDF (playtime, downtime, family time) every day, regardless of their age. The engagement of adolescents with their peers could help enhance their potential and increase their academic performance at school as they could seek help from their peers that could serve as inspiration rather than working alone (Sotinis, Mirco, & Michael, 2013). 'Peer pressure is one of the most powerful forces affecting teens,' says Molina (2017). Another example of peer pressure from an academic point of view is that when a student feels like they're not enough and their peers have a better grade than they do, they tend to feel like they haven't done their best and their grades are lower than their peers. They will build a desire to do great things and do well, even if it is difficult for them to move forward.
More certainly, teenagers with mental instability do not have someone to rely on. One study shows that those who suffer from mental instability are a person who doesn't have someone to rely on when things get tough. According to Puligni (1993), most probably due to the lack of guidance and support from parents for their children during adolescence, children during adolescence tend to enjoy the company of their peers more than their family as they believe that their peers better understand them than their family. At least every day parents should also try to talk to their kids and ask them how they coped and how they coped. According to Savin-Williams & Berndt (1990), a teenager with a supportive friendship is more likely to be altruistic, show empathy, and maintain a positive peer status. Laurence Steinberg (1992) claims that teenagers whose friends and parents value their academic achievement and are proud to do their best are doing better than teenagers who are sponsored by either or both. Nevertheless, when adolescents have a close relationship with their parents, their peers are less affected by them (Steinberg and Silverberg, 1986). As stated by Reisman (1985), peer pressure has a powerful influence on the feelings of teenagers, how they think, and how they decide. Having strong peer pressure changes one's personality when these forces impact a teenager's behavior, a teenager's likes or dislikes, and a teenager's feeling compelled to abandon their thoughts, perceptions, and emotions just to meet the expectations of peers or family.
There may be many reasons why a teenager or an individual suffers from mental instability but it should be troubling that peer pressure has had a lot of impact on a teenager's or an individual's mental state. Everyone should feel safe even in their own families because that's where a lot of development goes on, parents should dismiss the idea that having good grades means their kids are better, and having lower grades is worse. Friends should also be the one who elevates each other in times of need and should help each other even if they have different perspectives on life. Having a support system is a good start for lowering peer pressure every day. Peer pressure is the cause of mental instability among adolescents as they feel the need to conform and gain approval from their peers, they are forced to do better academically, and finally, they lack a good support system to reassure them that their hard work is valid. But if anyone around an individual or adolescent helps each other and lets their beliefs not affect their emotions, it would diminish the risk of mental instability, and teenagers will know that they are adequate and everything they do and say is true because they have the right to freely express themselves.
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Effects of Peer Pressure on Teenagers Essay.
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