Turning Peer Pressure Inside Out

By Audrey Gartner and Frank Riessman

The best statement of the peer principle came from Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous: "Drunks don't need a drink," he said, "they need a drunk." This concept became the basis of a worldwide movement and has spread to many groups beyond AA.

The essential idea is that people are influenced, and can be helped best, by others who share their problem or condition.

Among young people, it is critical to understand that they are far more influenced by each other--their peers--than by parents, teachers, or other adults in their lives. Young people talk the same language and listen to each other. For better or worse, they model themselves on other young people. Peers have a profound effect on each other's fashions, social attitudes, decisions about drugs and sex, and tastes in entertainment. Recent research by Laurence Steinberg and others in Beyond the Classroom found that, while parents have little influence on youngsters' attitudes toward school, peers are very influential, largely in a negative direction, as they often...