Fourteen-year-old Adejolaoluwa Osunbade of Roemichs International School, Ilorin, on Friday convened a lecture on impact of peer pressure among teenagers.
Ms Osunbade said the initiative was borne out of her desire to make the society a better place as building a society was the work of all.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the lecture was titled “The Impact of Pear Pressure Among Teenagers: The right circle, the right influence”.
“The reason behind it is that I noticed that a lot of teenagers are not independent about their decisions, they do a lot of things because their friends are doing them.
“And our society does not need leaders or people that will be easily influenced by other people’s decision.
“This programme will benefit students and other teenagers to know how to make decisions by themselves without being influenced by their friends or peers,” the SS2 student said.
Dr Ayotunde Omotosho, a Consultant Psychiatrist at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), while speaking on the topic, said the lecture organised would have tremendous benefits because peer pressure has mental effects as it relates to young people.
“Research shows that young people generally are heavvily influenced by what their peers do and say and it can be positive or negative.
“It is important to emphasise the effects of peer pressure because it can affect the mental health in a number of ways because young people can be influenced in terms of their perspectives, choices and the support hat is available to them.
“The lecture will have a ripple effect on the students present here because they will take what they have learnt here to their peers and step down the knowledge,” Omotosho said.
Then Chief Counsellor, University of Ilorin, Mrs Annor Patricia, advised parents to make friends with their children to curb the influence of peer pressure.