Teenage peer pressure can be highly influential with the constant process of making choices and weighing what they have been told by parents, peers, the media, teachers and other sources of information. Any one of these influences can be attractive to a teen. Yet parents can be a stronger influence than peers, if they equip their teens with the courage and skills to assertively resist negative peer pressure.

Open Communication
It’s important to be able to talk openly with your teen, and to make sure your teen is comfortable talking with you. It isn’t easy, but it is important. Here are a few points to remember: don’t judge, don’t lecture and don’t react emotionally. Instead, ask questions about how your teen feels about experiences, listen and problem solve and stay outwardly calm and rational. Let your teen know he can come to you to talk about peer pressure, and that you are here to help. Encourage your teen to offer her own suggestions on how to cope with friends or pressure, then steer her toward the choices that you think are best.

Discuss Behaviors and Expectations
Be clear, and be consistent. Make sure your teen knows the rules, boundaries and expectations in regards to curfew, smoking, drinking, going to class, being truthful and sexual behavior. These may be difficult discussion topics, but they are important enough that you need to work through your own feelings and appear as confident as you can.

Be honest if you want. Tell your teen if you made bad choices during your teenage years, and why you now realize they were wrong. Teens often don’t grasp the long-term consequences of their actions, so providing examples involving people they know can help.

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