Peer Pressure

Peer Pressure: Just Say No

So what we teach our kids to do in response to peer pressure is to begin by saying no. Something like no, no thank you. Something like that. If the person continues to pressure them, you want to give some kind of an excuse for why you're not doing what they want you to do. So let's say they're offering you a beer and you're not comfortable with that. You could say something like, you could make an excuse or give a reason like it gives me a headache. Or you could offer some kind of a personal consequence. You know, I've gotta get up early in the morning. You could say something that has to do with your own personal statement about yourself. Like, I don't really drink. Or you could play the support role even and say you know, I've gotta drive. But you give some kind of excuse, and just one excuse is usually fine.

Ways to Resist Peer Pressure

From there if they continue to peer pressure you, you want to use what we call the broken record technique. Which is kind of going back to that no thank you, I'm good. No really, I'm good. Kind of ... Read more

over and over. If they continue to peer pressure you from there you can try stalling. Saying you know, maybe later. You could try changing the subject. That can be effective sometimes. But if they continue to peer pressure you after all of these attempts, then what you can do is you can do the thing we call it reversing the peer pressure. And that's where you actually ask them something like why do you care so much if I have a beer? And usually the response is well I don't. And then of course you can change the subject from there. But if they continue to peer pressure you at that point, you might need to give them the cold shoulder. You may need to remove yourself from that situation.

How to Deal with Peer Pressure

So the bottom line is that there is a lot more that we can do in terms of helping our kids to handle peer pressure. It's not just about saying no. There's many different things that they can do to handle these rather difficult situations. Make sure to talk to your kids about ways to deal with peer pressure when they are in an uncomfortable situation.