Headmaster's News
February 2010
February 2010
A Message from the Headmaster
Peer Pressure (Used in Moderation) May Be A Good Thing
For as long as I can remember, we have all heard repeated messages about the dangers of peer pressure. Always blamed for a given student’s involvement in bad behavior, we so often are left with the sense that peer pressure, as if with an enormous magnet, somehow manages to draw otherwise innocent youths from otherwise healthy endeavors into a void of decline, disrespect and decay.
But, as is occasionally the case with educational theories, in a recent Newsweek article, reporters Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman present a theory that teens who feel peer pressure actually turn out better, not worse than their compatriots who are able to resist its forces.
Their premise is based upon a ten year study conducted by Professor Joseph P. Allen at the University of Virginia.
As a result of Professor Allen’s study, he discovered (to his surprise) that ten years out, students who felt more peer pressure when in their early teens were doing better, not worse, than those who were better able to resist peer pressure.
“Notably, they had much higher-quality relationships with friends, parents and romantic partners. Their need to fit in, in the early teens, later manifested itself as a willingness to accommodate – a necessary component of reciprocal relationships.”
“Meanwhile, those kids who did not feel much peer pressure to smoke, drink, etc., in seventh grade didn’t turn out to be the independent-minded stars we’d imagine. Instead, what was notable about them was that within five years they had a much lower GPA – almost a full grade lower. The kid who could say no to his peers turned out to be less engaged, all around, socially and academically. Basically, if he was so detached that he didn’t care what his peers thought, he probably wasn’t motivated by what his parents or society expected of him either.”
Significantly, “Allen has found that vulnerability to peers’ influence can be just as much of an asset as it is a liability. Many of the pressures felt by teens pull them in a good direction – they feel pressure to do well in school, pressure not to act childish and pressure to be athletic. ‘We think of susceptibility to peer pressure as only a danger, but, really it’s out of peer pressure that boys learn to take showers and not come to school smelly.’”
So, you might ask, what about the negative issues we have all heard for so long are associated with peer pressure?
Allen argues that in instances of experimentation with drugs and alcohol, “more often than not it isn’t peer pressure that is at work, but instead the operative factor is peer selection.”
“’The pressure to smoke and drink are less than we thought,’ concludes Allen. ‘To a parent, it seems like your child is suddenly smoking and drinking and it is reasonable to think this was caused by the new kids he’s been hanging out with the last month. But really, those who are about to smoke or drink pick other kids in a similar (developmental) spot.’ Teens give each other subtle clues that they’re ready to deviate: it could be nothing more than ignoring the Pledge of Allegiance or a well-timed snicker while the teacher is at the blackboard. By the time one says, ‘let’s hang out after school’ the plot is already in motion”
Somehow, to me at least, much of what Allen presents rings true and I am yet again reminded that bringing up children is a complex proposition with few simple and regularly applied rules. Like many things, it seems, peer pressure too might be a good thing when used in moderation.
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