Friendship's Influence On Adolescents

During one’s formative years a child’s social circle is small. Social events revolve around play dates and family gatherings. When the adolescent years begin the circle widens to include friends. These friends can have a strong influence on how the teen makes decisions on their social behavior. The influence can be positive by supporting the maturation of the teen. At other times the influence can be negative to force the teen into participating in risky behavior (Golzman, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to examine the role friends play in influencing an adolescent to take part in risky behavior. Arnett (2013) defines peer pressure as an “anonymous group of people who happen to be the same age as you”. Friends differ from peers because they are emotionally and socially important to you (Arnett, 2013). The textbook reinforces the idea that during adolescents peer pressure is lessened while friend’s influence plays a greater role (Arnett, 2013). The influence on teens by their friends follows three distinct stages. In early adolescents the influence rises in strengths, peaks in the mid-teens and declines in late adolescents (Golzman, 2015). An example of this developmental pattern is when in early adolescents one or two friends in a circle may start to smoke. In middle adolescents …show more content…
If one’s circle of friends enjoys one type of risky behavior you may feel the need to participate in this behavior, commonly known as “bird of a feather flock together” (Arnett, 2013). During my time in early and mid-adolescents I felt compelled to act similar to my friends to match our group identity. As I entered late adolescents I learned to embrace my individuality. I am now confident in my own actions that may differ from what my friends may enjoy doing. Our unique personalities allow us to pursue different passions and at the same time maintaining a strong