Peer pressure isn’t always a negative thing. It can be a positive influence and help challenge or motivate you to do your best. It’s helpful to recognise that peer pressure can also be negative, and can result in you doing something that doesn’t fit with your sense of right and wrong.
You might try to live up to other people’s expectations, but it’s important to be mindful to not have other people’s expectations cloud what you want. If you’re dealing with peer pressure, you’re not the only one.
Peer pressure often happens because you don’t want to be alone or left out, so you go with what other people think in order for them to include you. A peer can be anyone around the same age as you, like a friend, classmate, or even someone you’ve seen on TV and admire.
Peer pressure is the influence you feel from a person or group of people to do something you might not otherwise consider doing. It’s not uncommon to want to be part of a group and feel like you belong in a community, especially if you are new or less experienced than the people around you.