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Suzzane Ingram ENGL-1102-063 01 April, 2013

Are Your Friends That Important?

Can you name the most three important things in your life that you could not live without?. Last Easters day party at a cousins house, I randomly ask some of my cousins who were there and gathered them up to start a conversation about a topic that Im recently very interested to learn about. When I asked the question, most of them yelled out the answers right away such as money, food, family, etc. Surprisingly or not, almost every single one of them, including the guys and the ladies, aged younger than nineteen to be specific, all said that friends are what made them who they are today.

As written in several books and articles, friends do play an important role in life. Researchers have looked into the importance of having a strong friendship as what it does to our health. A study shows that women with ten friends or more are less likely to die from breast cancer than those without friends (Parker-Pope). According to Rebecca Adams, a sociology professor at UNC Greensboro, Friendship has a bigger impact on our psychological well-being than family relationships (Parker-Pope). When family becomes the source of anger and frustration, we often come to our friends to find support. In 2012, at the University of Virginia, thirty four students were put into a study and they were taken to

Le 2 stand on a steep hill with heavy backpacks and were asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Those with friends standing next to them gave lower estimate than those who stood alone. From the study, it is proved that people with stronger friendship networks feel like there is something they can turn into, answered by Karen Roberto (Parker-Pope).

Friends do give us a definition to a beautiful life, but what about the possible negative effects they could bring to us? From personal experience and scientific research, I propose that although most people benefit from friendship, it depends greatly on the peer group that one happens to be around. Younger folks who overrate the value of their friends are likely to develop inappropriate behaviors and beliefs from negative peer groups. Yet, they often do not realize when friends become unhealthy and can affect the rest of their lives.

Teens are more likely to be the victims of bad choice of friends, since they are easily influenced by peer pressure. By definition, peer pressure is caused by members of ones peer group to take a certain action, adopt certain value, or otherwise conform in order to be accepted (dictionary.com). In fact, it does not always leave negative impacts on teens. A positive peer group can lead to higher self-esteem. Some teens who experience peer pressure early in their lives can actually perform better in school and adapt a healthy lifestyle. When I was in middle school, I was friends with a group of kids who were highly active, and especially many of them achieved high ranks at school. I was motivated to study harder and became more active in order not to be left out. As of today, many parents who care about their childrens academic become more selective about

Le 3 whom will be friends with their children. Back to my situation, as I entered high school here in America, and happened to attend Garinger High School, I was made fun of by many individuals not just by racial identity, but also by getting good grades. To avoid the nerdy label, I ended up joining the club by not caring about my grades as much like I used to. In a survey study Peer effect on academic achievement among public elementary school students by Dr. Johnson, thirty four percent of African American students said that smart kids or kids that do well in school are made fun of by their peers and twenty-three percent of eighth grade students agree with the statement regardless of ethnicity (Delp).

Negative peer pressure can cause teens to adapt behaviors such as addiction to alcohol, teen pregnancy, eating disorders, smoking, etc.(Kulas). In a recent study on smoking behavior and selection of friends, adolescents tend to select friends with similar smoking behaviors (Mercken). That means that for an individual to be a member of the group, s/he must also adapt the smoking behavior. According to The City of Alexandra Virginia, one of the reasons that young adults join gangs is that their friends are in a gang or they feel the pressure to join a gang in order to look cool. There are many other reasons that should not be neglected but again, friends do play an important role about this social issue.

It is a fact that friendship can help an individual to gain social trust and reduce stress, leading to a healthier life (Mariska van der Horst and Hilde Coffe). Friends, in most cases, stay beside and support us when we are facing any hardship in life. This again can only apply to good friends. Most teens in the present days develop drinking at young age because of the influence of their friends. Statistics from a study indicate that almost all

Le 4 teenagers get their first drink from a friends, and those who have friends that use alcohol are three times as likely to start drinking themselves (science teacher). For adults, they are fifty percent more likely to start drinking heavily if one of their friends is a heavy drinker (Harding). Thus, age does make a difference as older individuals are better at decision making. Familys history doesnt necessarily drive the age of first drink. As they get older, than family history plays a larger role, Kuperman, a researcher of teen drinking behavior, has said (Lewis). During adolescence stage, parents affect the ways their children behave. However, as the children get older, they tend to spend less time with their parents, and more time with the peers. In college, the peer environment contributes to high-risk alcohol use ways of direct influences, modeling, and perceived norms (Borsari and Carey). Strong friendships are often formed at this stage of life. College is a big transition since the teens are experiencing many changes in their lives, from becoming young adults to getting more or less serious about their education. When one happens to be a member of a group of people who value activities such as late college parties or drinking over academic performances, there is no doubt that the person will soon adapt the same values and beliefs in mind.

Another serious impact of peer influence is body image. Recent findings describe that young women of a group tend to mimic one anothers perceptions on body images (Pappas). Thus, if one of the members is on a strict diet, it is likely that the rest of them will start on the diet or wanting to join soon or later. Issues such as eating disorders, less aspiration for higher education, negative behaviors, and others can be explained from peer pressure.

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Friends can either leave negative or positive impact on ones life. But it depends on the type of peers that one happens to be around. Parents, in the opposite, expect their kids to be more successful than themselves. When Richard, a parent and a good friend, was asked if he hoped his friends to be more successful than himself, he gave a hesitated answer, It depends on what kind of success youre talking about but well, I wouldnt want my friends to be rich and me being poor because they will look down on me. However, when asked if he expected his son to go to college and get a degree, he answered yes in less than five seconds. An assumption was made that most friends hope to be the better one, as proven when asking two other people, Thuc-a college student, and Michelle-a ninth grade student.

A healthy friendship is often appreciated for its importance on our well-being. However, young people must learn to accept that friendship can become unhealthy and step away from it when needed to. They also need to control their own decisions and not letting their peers influence what they do.

Le 6 Works Cited Mercken L, Steglich C, Sinclair P, Holliday J, and Moore L. A Longitudinal Social Network analysis of Peer Influence, Peer Selection, and Smoking Behavior Among Adolescents in British Schools. Web. 02 March 2013. Science Teacher. Best Friends Affect Teen Drinking. March 2013. Web. 13 March 2013. Delp, Valorie. How Peers Influence Academic Performance. Web. 13 March 2013. Parker, Tara. What Are Friends For? A Longer Life. The New York Times. 20 April 2009. Web. 13 March 2013. Kulas, Michelle. The Effect of Teen Pressure on Teenagers. Livestrong.com. 09 August 2011. Web. 13 March 2013. Mercken L, Steglich C, Sinclair P, Holliday J, and Moore L. A Longitudinal Social Network analysis of Peer Influence, Peer Selection, and Smoking Behavior Among Adolescents in British Schools. Web. 2 March 2013. Harding, Anne. Family, Friends are Big Influence on Drinking. news.health.com. 5 April 2012. Web. 10 March 2013. Lewis, Richard. Best Friends Influence When Teenagers Have First Drink. now.uiowa.edu. 28 Jan 2013. Web. 2 March 2013. Borsari, Brian. Carey, Kate. Peer Influences on College Drinking: A review of the research. Journal of Substance Abuse 13 (2001): 391-424. Print. Pappas, Stephanie. Friends share body image woes. Live Science. 6 Nov 2012. Web. 2 March 2013.