Band 6+: Young people are often influenced in their behaviours and situations by others in the same age. This is called “peer pressure”. Do the disadvantages of peer pressure outweigh the advantages?

There has been much controversy about whether the merits of peer pressure on adolescents are bigger than its drawbacks. From my perspective, although peer pressure could bring some positive effects on young people, its disadvantages certainly outweigh its benefits.

It is true that many young people could get several benefits from peer pressure. Some of them have a tendency to transfer their pressure into motivation. For example, in an office, some young workers could get lower salary than their peer colleagues, so they probably try their best to be promoted with higher salary. Additionally, studying and working under this kind of pressure may make a number of young people braver and able to withstand the the constant pressure. For instances, several young students who usually receive mocks during their school time because of being not as good as their friends’ performances, evidently have the ability to adapt to new challenges quickly and overcome those in their adulthood.

However, there are numerous significant negavitve effects that peer pressure gives rise to adolescents. In terms of emotion and mental health, some juniors could be negatively affected by this kind of pressure. Puberty is certainly the stage of life that mental health begins to develop; therefore, several pressures such as peer pressure may easily damage and leaves plenty of bad consequences. For examples, some adolescents may become depressed and self-deperciated when they cannot get higher marks than their friends’. In additon, peer pressure could make the relationship between the teenager and their friends become increasingly detrimental, even with their parents. This means that a number of young people cannot build a healthy relationship when they get several mental issues such as depression. Consequently, they probably tend to escape themselves from others. Moreover, some parents often compare their children with others, which possibly lead to conflicts and unthoughtfulness between family members.

In conclusion, while there are some advantages from peer pressure, I strongly believe that it would be overshadowed by its considerable drawbacks.