How to Help Your Children Avoid Peer Pressure and Making Bad Choices

Peers can have a powerful influence on children, both positive and negative. Children need a strong foundation that equips them to avoid negative peer pressure and the potentially harmful choices that come with it. Provide support for your child to help him resist the negative and embrace positive interactions and social situations. Your guidance will help your child stay strong both in the short term and throughout his life.

Instructions

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      Communicate expectations and rules to your child so she understands the boundaries and the limitations on her conduct. Over time and with consistency, your expectations teach and reinforce your values, which your child will internalize. For example, if you expect honesty and respect from your child and you model this behavior, she will accept these values and follow them. Setting these expectations and instilling values helps prepare your child withstand the influence of peers.

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      Talk about the importance of friendships with your youngster to open dialogue and facilitate back-and-forth communication about peer issues. Discuss qualities of a true friend -- someone who offers support and companionship without trying to influence in a negative or harmful way. Explore the opposite side of the spectrum, too, by discussing a relationship with someone who could be a negative influence.

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      Teach decision-making skills to help prepare your child to make positive choices. Whenever possible, offer choices to your youngster to practice the skill. Choices might include which shirt to wear or which fruit to have at lunch. As the youngster gets older, make the decisions weightier -- homework before dinner or after dinner, for example. With practice, your child will learn to consider consequences and motivations as a part of making decisions, states Professor Jim Taylor, writing for "Psychology Today." These decision-making skills help prepare your child for peer influence and pressure.

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      Explore peer pressure with your child to help her recognize it. Peer pressure might be verbal influence in which someone coaxes or pressures someone else to engage in risky or negative behavior. Peer pressure might also be nonverbal if kids snicker and roll their eyes about a child with different opinions or ideas.

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      Role play peer situations with your child to practice staying strong and resisting negative influences. Think of various negative peer-pressure situations your child might encounter, such as cheating on a test or skipping school. Help your child brainstorm strong responses he could use, such as ̶0;No thanks̶1; or ̶0;I̵7;m not interested.̶1; Talk about the importance of showing confidence in a peer-pressure situation to communicate strength -- maintaining eye contact and standing tall should do the trick.

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