Understanding Teen Peer Influence

The belief that teenagers are more likely to give in to peer influence than adults is a long‑standing one. There is truth to it. However, that may not be because teens are less capable of making sensible decisions themselves, new studies on peer pressure suggest.

Research finds that people are strikingly susceptible to influence as teenagers, but to what degree varies widely. In a growing body of work, scientists suggest that teens are more likely to be influenced by peer pressure than adults because they get greater pleasure from behavior they experience as rewarding. They tend to find being liked by other people very pleasing.

Peer influence during teenage years is normal. During that time, people experience an increase in novelty‑seeking, demonstrated by interest in exploring a new environment. This peer influence tends to peak around the age of 15 and then decline. Teens get better at setting boundaries with peers by the age of 18, according to Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor at Temple University.

In years past, people thought that teens did not have fully developed frontal lobes (前额叶), the part of the brain critical for decision‑making and other more complex cognitive tasks. But an increasing amount of research seems to show that teens are able to make decisions as well as adults when they are not overcome with emotions.

Peer pressure is often seen as a negative, and indeed, it can trick teens into unhealthy behavior like smoking or speeding. But in fact, it can also lead to positive engagement in more useful social behavior. If peers value doing well in school or excelling at sports, for instance, it might encourage teens to study or train harder. And both peer pressure and learning to avoid it are important developmental steps to self‑reliance, experts say.

Facing the influence of friends represents an important developmental step for teens on their way to becoming adults who think regularly, scientists say.

In order for kids to develop the ability to avoid peer pressure, parents have to let their children compete for it, according to Dr. Steinberg. “If you’re the kind of parent that raises your children with the ‘do it because I said so’ approach, you’re raising a child who’s going to be more easily affected by others saying ‘Do this,’” he says.