LWL Für die Menschen. Für Westfalen-Lippe

Often young people have exaggerated conceptions about what other young people do and don’t do. This can lead to direct or indirect peer pressure on the individual.
But when made aware of their friends real behaviour/attitude, it has an effect on their own behaviour/attitude as well.

Target Group

•  The target group is 12 year olds or younger. We know how important it is for children and young people to feel part of a group and to have social bonds. We also know that they mirror each other’s behaviour to stay in these relationships.

 
Setting

•  The training day will be held at the school.

 
Partners/Cooperation

•  School teachers, prevention consultant.

 
Objectives of the project

• To make the children / young people (even adults) aware that what we may think of each other, not necessarily is the actual truth. So therefore don’t start smoking, when you don’t even like it, -don’t drink alcohol, when you prefer a coke, -don’t join in shoplifting, when you think it’s wrong and stupid, ect.
• Just because you want to fit in, and is scared of loosing you status or friends, or because you want to impress someone all because you THINK that is what they expect of you.
• The main objective is to prevent these “social misunderstandings” and thereby to prevent risk behaviour.
  
• Also to challenge the picture that the media is painting, of how young people look anno 2010.

Method/Measure

• Through questions such as:

“How many of your classmates do you think, has tried smoking cannabis?” A: under 5% B: under 10% C: over 10% D: over 20% “
Have you ever smoked cannabis?” A: yes B: no 

• There is hardly no limits to how you can mix the questions or stick to a theme.
  
• We like to use “response pads” (Like in “Who wants to be a millionaire” –when they ask the audience) because it is anonymous and you get the answers immediately. 
  
• The whole day and every question and answer is of course tied together with lots of dialog and discussion.

Topics worked out with target group

• The main topics within this project where young people’s consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, use of violence and other forms of crime related behaviour.
  Which highlighted different forms of "risk-behaviour/willingness".

Gender Aspect

• none
  

Migration/Religious Aspects

• none
  

Structure/Time table

• One whole school day/training day.
  

Staff

• One or two members of staff, throughout the day.
  
  

 Documentation/Evaluation

• One year after the experiment, it was documented that the young people that had been part of this project / experiment now longer carried those “Social misunderstandings / expectations” towards themselves and each other that let to this “indirect peer pressure”.
  It also showed that behaviour and willingness to take unnecessary risks had gone down compared with the year before.