Peer Pressure is the influence
of the social group on an individual. Peer pressure among today’s teenagers is a
subject that has received a great deal of attention. This interest has generally
been focused on the negative influences that young people can have on their
peers, such as promoting drug or alcohol abuse, cheating, theft, and a host of
other harmful activities. Peer pressure can, though, have a positive effect on
young people. Theorists have proposed that adolescents who are independent from
their parents become dependent on their peers and susceptible to peer pressure
(Blos, 1979; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). This paper examines the effect of
the pressure of those peers on teenagers. The impacts are studied through
teenage behavioral development research articles and books. To resolve the major
hypothesis that how peer pressure effects a teenager’s life, a clear distinction
between positive and negative peer pressure is to be observed. Peer pressure, in
itself, is neither good nor bad. It can encourage a person to study hard and get
good grades or to skip school, get drunk or smoke cigarettes. Peer pressure
plays a particularly large role in the lives of teenagers.