Relationships - Peers and Friends
Completion requirements
UNIT 1
During your teen years, your friends can be a very influential and important part of your life. As you enter adolescence, most people will turn to their peers and friends for emotional support and rely less heavily on their families. As a result, you become more discriminating in choosing your friends. As kids, you tend to be friends with whoever is closest in proximity to you. It is hard to play tag if you are not in the same park as someone!
Once you get older, you start selecting your friends based on common interests, and as a result, cliques (groups of friends) start to develop. You may have more than one clique in your life. You might have school friends, a group of people with whom you share common interests. However, you may also have groups of friends outside of school that are formed through clubs, sports teams, or other extra-curricular activities.
No matter who you are friends with, they can have a great deal of influence over you, just as you can have influence over them. This influence is often referred to as peer pressure. Although often thought of as negative, peer pressure can also be positive. We should all strive to be positive influences in the lives of others, and do our best to choose positive influences in our lives.
The friends that you choose help to shape who you become as teenagers and young adults. Think about what your goals and aspirations are after you leave high school. Do they align with those of your friends? Will the friends that you have now be supportive of your choices or will they be barriers, preventing you from achieving your goals?
Once you get older, you start selecting your friends based on common interests, and as a result, cliques (groups of friends) start to develop. You may have more than one clique in your life. You might have school friends, a group of people with whom you share common interests. However, you may also have groups of friends outside of school that are formed through clubs, sports teams, or other extra-curricular activities.
No matter who you are friends with, they can have a great deal of influence over you, just as you can have influence over them. This influence is often referred to as peer pressure. Although often thought of as negative, peer pressure can also be positive. We should all strive to be positive influences in the lives of others, and do our best to choose positive influences in our lives.
The friends that you choose help to shape who you become as teenagers and young adults. Think about what your goals and aspirations are after you leave high school. Do they align with those of your friends? Will the friends that you have now be supportive of your choices or will they be barriers, preventing you from achieving your goals?
