I would love to share more with you about the Rainbow Card exploring peer pressure in the Reframing Your Thoughts toolkit for teenagers.
The front of the Rainbow Card has the following reframe – “My friends keep making me do things that I don’t want to do (this is called peer pressure)” vs “I don’t have to agree to do anything that I don’t feel comfortable doing because my identity, views and values matter and are important”.
The back of the Rainbow Card starts off by recognising how it can be hard not to give in to peer pressure. It goes on to explain, however, that giving in to this can mean turning away from our own identity and values in favour of someone else’s. It highlights to the reader how they deserve to live according to their own values and points out that, while they might not be in control of how their friends act, they are in control of how they respond.
The Rainbow Card then goes on to offer a number of helpful and practical suggestions of different things that teens can do to help prepare themselves for when they are in a situation facing peer pressure. It also goes on to suggest that, if the reader repeatedly finds themselves in situations where they are facing pressure to do things that they don’t feel comfortable doing, they might want to re-evaluate their friendships. Ideas of questions they could ask themselves to help them to think things through are offered.
The Rainbow Card then reminds the reader that teens are learning so much about themselves during this time and, as part of this, some friendships can change over time.
They are also signposted to other Rainbow Cards in the toolkit exploring friendships and bullying. Additional Rainbow Cards explore a number of areas related to self-esteem which also offer useful food for thought.
Finally, to help aid their thinking (and in light of the support they have just read), the reader is asked to think about how they might respond if they find themselves in a situation where they are facing peer pressure.
Here’s to helping teens know that their identity and values matter.
Recent Comments