What Are Teenagers Mostly Impacted By?

Friendships

• It is widely known that one of the major influences on a teenager is the group of friends she spends time with. Maria R.T. de Guzman, an extension adolescent specialist at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, states that adolescence is a time when peers play an increasingly significant role in the lives of youth. Friendships become more intimate and exclusive, as well as more constant than they were in elementary and early middle school. Friends can give a teenager the opportunity to feel accepted; however, they may also be negative influences if they pressure their friend to try drugs, for example, or engage in sexual behavior.

The Media

• A teenager is impacted by the images he sees on television, as well as the music he hears on the radio and the billboards he sees as he drives down the street. A piece on the media on the website of the Eagle Boys Ranch, a resource for troubled teens, reports that the effect that society has on an adolescent is profound and potentially dangerous. Although some messages on television or in movies may be positive, there are also contradicting messages about sexual promiscuity and violence in which they are often glamorized. Furthermore, social media sites may send confusing messages about partying, drinking, drug abuse and casual sex.

Parents

• A teenager's parents have a major impact on her decisions, as well as on her self-esteem and state of mind during adolescence. Sheila Clark, senior staff associate with the National Association of Social Workers with a master's in social work, reports on their website that younger teens in particular are more likely to state parents as major influences in life, and that for both younger and older teens, the roles of parents in their lives and decision-making processes is often underestimated. Parents may play an especially large role in sexual decisions during adolescence.

Religion

• The religion a teenager claims as his own, as well as the values he professes, all impact his behavior. Christian Smith and Melina Lundquist Denton report in their book, "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers," that a teenager who is serious about his religion will often get involved in a broad range of other social activities. Conversely, many American teenagers who are religiously disengaged are disconnected for reasons that are vague and undefined. Only a few report being seriously skeptical of a higher power.