How can I help my child deal with peer pressure?

Your kid will be better prepared to handle peer pressure if you help him establish his own identity. Psychologist Jennifer Hartstein, PsyD, discusses ways to help your child confident enough to stand his ground.

Transcript

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Peer pressure happens because kids wanna feel like they're part of the crowd. They don't wanna feel excluded. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:12

Peer pressure can take many forms and changes as children age. So when they're younger, especially

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in elementary and middle school, peer pressure can really involve a lot of bullying behaviors so that if the whole group is picking on another child,

00:26

your child might jump in because they don't wanna be the one that's excluded or not part of the group. That's something that kind of continues over time.

00:34

As they hit middle school and high school, peer pressure can involve being involved in drugs or alcohol,

00:41

engaging in sex, cheating, stealing, any of those kinds of things. Oftentimes peer pressure happens because kids wanna feel

00:49

like they're part of the crowd. They don't wanna feel excluded. So the more you can promote self esteem and a healthy sense

00:56

of who you are and real sense of identity in your child, the more likely they will be to not engage in the behaviors

01:05

that you don't want them to engage in, which is really what peer pressure promotes. Kids who are popular often get sucked into peer pressure more.

01:12

So not that you want your kid not to be popular. You do want them to have a sense of identity and ability to say no so that they can be protected and not

01:18

get involved in all the negative things that might be going on around them. It's really important to have your children and teens

01:25

participating in things they love because the more they're feeling confident about their own abilities, the less likely

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they will be to engage in things that are negative. So if you can promote them being involved in things that make them feel successful and positive and

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good about themselves and that will build their self esteem up, the less likely they're gonna be victims of peer pressure. And they're gonna be able to stand up

01:45

for themselves and potentially for anybody else that might be needing some help.