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According to Erik Erikson, adolescence is the age in which people must set up an identity to escape identity diffusion and confusion. At this age, adolescents give much importance to their friends who have a power over them. This phenomenon is called "peer pressure." Oxford English Dictionary defines peer pressure as the influence from members of the same group. One may think of many kinds of peer pressure that may have a positive or negative aspect. Peer group is a term commonly used by psychologists to describe people of a similar age, often when talking about adolescents. There is peer pressure in different ages and different places. For instance, workers at the same factory have peer pressure which is positive because each one of them tries to do his or her best at work. There is peer pressure among small kids; they try to do the same gestures and have the same toys and there is also peer pressure in ethnic groups. Finally, there is peer pressure among adolescents which is the most important kind since it influences the adolescents' personality and intervenes in the development of their morality.
Keywords: peer pressure, negative effects, adolescents
Indeed, peers are one of the most significant factors that influence the adolescent's psychological development. Bronfenbrenner (as cited in Oswald & Suss, 1988), a Russian psychologist who had developed many theories in the developmental psychology, asserts, "the first level of the ecology or the context of human development is the micro system ... [that is] family, school, peer groups as well as the specific culture within which the family identifies."(349) this means that adolescents are mostly influenced by their families and their surrounding. In previous findings, family was the only responsible for adolescents' behavior, yet recent research find out that peers have a more powerful influence on adolescents, especially in what concerns academic achievement (Oswald & Suss, 1988).
This goes without saying that peer pressure is important and even unavoidable in adolescence. Peers are crucial for adolescent's development because development needs to be in context which mainly means family and peers (Oswald & Suss, 1988). In fact, peer pressure has more negative than positive effects on adolescents' personality.
Drug abuse is an illustration of the dangerous negative effects that...