Peer Pressure - Driving Under the Influence

Another title for this article could have been, “Friends Killing Each Other”. It is about peer pressure on young drivers - how it works and the effects it has. And then how to overcome it, which is described positively as a set of 'skills to acquire', rather than negatively as a series of 'rules to obey'.

It comes as a shock to most people to know that the biggest single cause of adolescent deaths is their friends - or themselves - in road crashes. Within that, the driver who kills many of the young girls will be their boyfriend.

.. about five times the death rate of other drivers ..

.. admit to being strongly influenced by their peers to take higher driving risks ..

.. obsession with what friends think of them is a weakness in making their own decisions ..

.. recognise three levels of peer pressure - actual, assumed and imagined ..

.. peer pressure is anchored in a subconscious belief ..

.. significant differences in how the sexes encounter and handle peer pressure ..

.. Top Twenty Tips for handling peer pressure - 'skills to acquire' rather than 'rules to obey' ..

.. not inevitable that peer pressure will make young drivers more dangerous. They could handle it ..

.. keep control to themselves over what they do, rather than giving it away to peers who will abuse it.

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