Tip #4. Peer Pressures at School

I'm Dr. Myrna Shure from Drexel University with today's parenting tip, brought to you by the New Jersey Governor's Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee.

Is peer pressure to smoke, try drugs, or drink alcohol a problem now? How can you know?

Look for signs of stress, change in body posture, enthusiasm for school, even a drop in grades.

Avoid lecturing or telling your child what to do. Instead, ask questions to help her think. about what she's doing. Ask:

• What are your hopes and dreams?
• What might happen to your hopes and dreams if you smoke cigarettes, or try drugs?
• How will you feel about that?
• Can you think of something you can do or say so those things won't happen?

Help your child make good decisions and he'll develop an inner strength, and less need to succumb to the pressures of doing what he doesn't want to do, from "friends" he really doesn't want to have.

If we change the way we talk to kids, it will change the way they talk to us - and to the peers who are pressuring them at school.

I'm Dr. Myrna B. Shure.