Stress Put on Students by Their Peers

Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to the group.People affected by peer pressure may or may not want to be in their current social group. Many young people are forced to spend time in a social group even if they do not want to spend time in this group. Because youths are forced to spend time in social groups they do not want to be in peer pressure is usually portrayed negitively. Youth peer pressure can have positive side effects though. For example a person who is in a social group that works hard and wants to succeed in life that person may be encouraged to follow suit to avoid being excluded from the group.
In most cases peer pressure is negitive. Students can be peer pressured into drinking alcoholic beverages,having sex, doing drugs, and even in some cases suicide. Now most of you may be wondering (especially the parents) why students have such a strong need to fit in with people who may not even like them. The answer is that because students have to see the same students in school everyday having a social group makes life easier for students. Students with social groups can come to school everyday and have someone to hang out with, and someone to sit with at lunch.
The level of acceptance or rejection an adolescent experiences among their peers influences their trajectory of development.The social status of students while in school often has a profound impact on their development and well-being.The four common groupings of social status are accepted, controversial, neglected and rejected. Accepted adolescents are often liked by most people and get high ratings by their peers. Controversial adolescents get good ratings from half their peers and poor ratings from the other half. Neglected adolescents do not get any ratings at all. Rejected adolescents get poor ratings from their peers. The level of acceptance an adolescent feels will shape his experiences in high school and often throughout much of his later life. Rejected adolescents have poor adjustment skills and low self esteem. They are at high risk to engage in suicidal activitys and commmit criminal acts. Social rejection correlates with poor social skills, poor impulse control, aggression and less psychological well-being. Rejection among a person's peers is often rated as very troubling for people. Positive relations with parents will lead students to have positive relations with thier peers. It is important to understand why children are getting rejected so that programs may be implemented to increase their social competence. Acceptance and rejection among peers will affect an adolescent's trajectory of development based on what experiences they have. More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_acceptance_and_rejection