Peer pressure is something that everyone has faced at one time or another. It can occur at any age, but generally affects adolescents more. In middle and high school, adolescents are desperate to fit in. For example, a group of four friends goes to the gas station after school. Three of the girls take a candy bar and slip it into their pocket. They told the fourth girl, Jenny, to get one too. Jenny has never done anything like this before and she knows it's not right. She's new to this school and she wants these girls to like her, so she goes ahead and does it anyway. This is a perfect example of what teenagers do when they are around their friends. They try to be "cool" and impress their peers, even if it means doing something they would never do if they were with their parents or even if they were alone. Often when people hear the words peer pressure, they think of negative things, but peer pressure can also be positive. When children enter high school, they begin to get involved in many activities. Most of these activities, like sports, take place after school. Adolescents begin to spend more and more time with their peers and less and less with their families (“Peer Pressure: Its Influence on Teens and Decision Making,” 2008). In this context, adolescents tend to pick up the habits of their peers or start speaking and acting like their peers do; they start taking more risks. It often seems that “peer influence can be difficult to resist – it has actually become “pressure” – and you may feel pressured to do something you are not comfortable with ”, but they do it anyway (“Peer Pressure: Its Influence on Teens and Decision Making,” 2008). There is a direct effect on brain signals related to risk and reward......middle of article......choose or reject behaviors from their peer group" when they are in a social group (Cho & Chung, 2011). Peer pressure can happen to anyone, regardless of age. This even happens to “good” kids. It's hard to resist when there are other people around and the pressure is on. Peer pressure has many serious and lasting effects. Works Cited Cho, Y. and Chung, O. (2012). A mediated moderation model of conformist peer bullying. Journal Of Child & Family Studies, 21(3), 520-529. Parker-Pope, T. (2011). Teenager, friends and bad decisions. New York Times. ^ Peer pressure: influence on adolescents and decision-making. . (2008). Scholastic, Heads Up. http://headsup.scholastic.com/articles/peer-pression-its-influence-on-teens-and-decision-making